The Census Research Data Center (RDC) network provides a mechanism for researchers who require data that is more extensive or detailed than is publicly available to advance their research. Researchers working at these RDCs examine broad-ranging issues, including trends in inequality and segregation, the effects of power plants on property values, factors influencing employer-sponsored healthcare coverage, and the dynamics of firm and plant entries and exits over the business cycle.

Schedule of Bay Area Presentations

September 22, 2008

12:00-2:00 pm UC Berkeley
Location: Room 608-7 Evans Hall
"Economic Microdata in the RDCs"
Presenters: Ron Jarmin, Lucia Foster and Lynn Riggs, U.S. Bureau of the Census

12:00-2:00 pm UC San Francisco,
Location: Room 263 at the UCSF Laurel Heights campus
"A Healthy Dose of Data: NCHS Restricted-Use Data in the RDCs"
Presenters: Peter Meyer and Tabatha McNeill, National Center for Health Statistics

3:00-5:00 pm UC Berkeley
Location: Helzel Board Room, Haas
"Above the Top-Code and Below the PUMA: Demographic Microdata in the RDCs"
Presenters: Ron Jarmin, Lucia Foster and Lynn Riggs, U.S. Bureau of the Census

3:30-4:30 pm Stanford University
Location: Building 120; Mendenhall Library
"A Healthy Dose of Data: NCHS Restricted-Use Data in the RDCs"
Presenters: Peter Meyer and Tabatha McNeill, National Center for Health Statistics

September 23, 2008

11:00-12:15 pm Stanford University
Location: Building 120; Mendenhall Library
Presenters: Ron Jarmin, Lucia Foster and Lynn Riggs, U.S. Bureau of the Census

12:15-2:00 pm UC Berkeley
Location: Room 114 Morgan Hall
"A Healthy Dose of Data: NCHS Restricted-Use Data in the RDCs"
Presenters: Peter Meyer and Tabatha McNeill, National Center for Health Statistics

About the Presenters

Ron S. Jarmin received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oregon in 1992. He began his career as an economist at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies where he is now the Chief Economist. His responsibilities include managing the Census Bureau’s network of Research Data Centers, a staff of research economists and the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics program. He has published papers in the areas of industrial organization, technology and firm performance, electronic business, industrial classification, and urban economics. He has done considerable research on business dynamics including leading the development of the Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Business Database and the new Business Dynamics Statistics Series.

Lynn Riggs has been an economist with the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Center for Economic Studies since 2002 and is currently the Lead RDC Administrator. Dr. Riggs has conducted research related to policy evaluation, health care, education, and social welfare including the effects of policy on consumer and producer incentives to undertake food safety efforts. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1998 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000.

Lucia Foster is the Assistant Division Chief of Research for the Center for Economic Studies. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1998. While in graduate school, Lucia served as a Special Sworn Status Research Assistant in the Research Data Center Lab at Census Headquarters. After graduation she joined the Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies. She has published papers in the areas of productivity dynamics, job flows, and wage dispersion.

Peter Meyer is the Director of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Research Data Center (RDC). His graduate training is in economics and public health. Prior to coming to the RDC, Peter worked on the National Health Interview Survey and led a research project on economic measurement. He also held a faculty position at the University of Maryland Center on Aging. In an earlier career, Peter spent over ten years working in the intelligence community. This blend of survey, academic, and classified data analysis experience equip him well for the job of providing researchers access to sensitive NCHS data.

Tabatha L. McNeill joined the Research Data Center (RDC) in July 2008. She provides technical assistance to researchers who wish to access non-public use data files. She also assists the RDC director with the daily operations of the Research Data Center. Before coming to NCHS, Ms. McNeill was a Program Associate for Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Tabatha has a MPH in Behavioral Science and Health Education.

Sponsors

The California Census Research Data Center
The Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health care Markets and Consumer Welfare
The Center for Health Research
Health Services and Policy Analysis Program, School of Public Health
Department of Economics
The Institute of Business and Economic Research (IBER)
The Haas School of Business
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies

Questions?

Please contact Jon Stiles (jons@berkeley.edu) if you have questions about the CCRDC or these presentations.

To read the full story, see http://www.almanacnews.com/story.php?story_id=6839

For more information, see the NPLS website at
www.nationalpubliclifestudy.org.

Since its inception, the program has achieved considerable success, growing to more than 20 researchers and a subject pool of about 150-200 students. According to Neil Malhotra, recent Stanford PhD graduate in political science who enters the GSB this fall as an assistant professor, “My REP grant was invaluable in improving the external validity of my research. Most importantly, REP provides researchers with a diverse pool of subjects that are more representative of the national population than traditional undergraduate subject pools. This allowed me not only to produce internally-valid findings via my design, but also results that could say something about human behavior more generally.”

Applications are due Friday August 29, 2008 at 5:00 pm and are available at: http://opinio.stanford.edu/opinio/s?s=957. Other deadlines for application in the 2008-2009 academic year include Friday, October 10, 2008 (for Winter 2009) and Friday, January 16, 2009 (for Spring 2009).

For more information about REP, visit the REP Web site at: rep.stanford.edu. The Stanford community section of the site is password protected, so to access information or if you have questions about the application process or the program itself, please direct them to this email address: research-exp-program@stanford.edu.
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"Sandy has already provided excellent guidance on effective program development, organization and planning," says IRiSS Executive Director Chris Thomsen. "He has also been very generous with his contacts by setting up meetings with key leaders at the Carter Center and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta."

IRiSS, formed in 2004, produces cutting-edge original multi-disciplinary research in the social sciences. Recent conferences have covered topics including racial and gender inequality, theories of justice, philanthropy, infectious diseases, population studies and access to census and health statistics data. IRiSS also houses several research centers, including American National Election Studies, The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, The Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, The Stanford Census Research Data Center and The Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences.

Stanford University President John Hennessy has described IRiSS as a critical, strategic initiative, noting that many of society’s problems are neither purely technical nor medical. “Advancing the desire to transplant democracy to other nations or addressing problems of poverty and discrimination, for example, are questions of social science,” Hennessy has said. “How we respond to global epidemics, or how we think about national health care and national defense also demand answers from the social sciences, in conjunction with engineering, medicine, and law.”

This is not the first time the university has recognized Smith’s achievements. In 2006 he received the Stanford Medal, one of the university’s highest awards, which recognizes a distinguished legacy of leadership. He also served as a Stanford University trustee for several years.

Smith has served on the Board of Trustees of the Paideia School, The National Kidney Foundation of Georgia and Prevent Blindness Georgia. He has also been a member of the President's Council of the Woodruff Arts Center, the Alumni Board of Governors of The Westminster School and served on the MBA Advisory Board of the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.

Smith is a lecturer and an executive in residence at Dartmouth’s Tuck School and the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He also is a member of the Leadership Atlanta class of 2000.