University of Wisconsin–Madison
American Journal of Sociology (2023) Authors: Geoffrey T. Wodtke, Ugur Yildirim, David J. Harding, and Felix Elwert Abstract: It is widely hypothesized that neighborhood effects on academic achievement are explained by differences in the quality of schools attended by resident children. The authors evaluate this hypothesis using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and a diverse set …
American Journal of Sociology (2023) Authors: Felix Elwert, Tamás Keller, Andreas Kotsadam Abstract: Contact theory predicts that interethnic exposure reduces antiminority discrimination. By contrast, conflict theory predicts that interethnic exposure worsens discrimination. Received scope conditions, however, are vague and do not properly differentiate between the domains of the theories. Furthermore, prior evidence is mostly correlational, and supportive …
Annals of Applied Statistics (2025) Authors: Ang Yu, Felix Elwert Abstract: We introduce a new nonparametric causal decomposition approach that identifies the mechanisms by which a treatment variable contributes to a group-based outcome disparity. Our approach distinguishes three mechanisms: group differences in: (1) treatment prevalence, (2) average treatment effects, and (3) selection into treatment based on …
Understanding roots of social inequalities Social scientists have long worked to better understand the roots of societal inequalities between groups. For example, why do members of one group on average do better in school, or why does another group have a lower average income? There is a large literature that has tried to find the …
Five IDS Affiliates were recently honored with University of Wisconsin–Madison Vilas Professorships and Awards. These awards are given annually to extraordinary UW–Madison faculty and staff. This year, 44 total professorships and awards were given. Affiliates earning awards are: Felix Elwert, Sociology: Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship Kaiping Chen, Life Sciences Communication: Vilas Early-Career Investigator Award Lauren …
The Annals of Applied Statistics (2025) Authors: Ang Yu, Felix Elwert Abstract: We introduce a new nonparametric causal decomposition approach that identifies the mechanisms by which a treatment variable contributes to a group-based outcome disparity. Our approach distinguishes three mechanisms: group differences in: (1) treatment prevalence, (2) average treatment effects, and (3) selection into treatment …