About Me
I am the Ben H. Williams professor of economics at Baylor University. I study a number of topics including mental healthcare, sex work,
abortion and drug policy. I love my family, friends, colleagues, students, HBO, Ted Lasso, Keanu Reeves, Mister Rogers, my kittens Betty and Veronica, a ton of feral cats who won't leave my front porch, causal
inference, Mac Miller and my old wagon.
News: I am write explainers and other things on my Substack: Scott's Substack. I also host a podcast entitled The Mixtape with Scott which you can find on platforms like Spotify and others too.
I regularly host workshops on causal inference for departments, industry and government agencies. I also provide both a multi-day workshop on the quantitative methods for causal inference (based on my book), which can include a relatively contemporary and up-to-date treatment of difference-in-differences design (including differential timing). For those interested, check out my workshop tab and email my assistant, Emmi Scott about scheduling and pricing.
Causal Inference: The Mixtape.
An accessible, contemporary introduction to the methods for determining cause and effect in the social sciences
Causal inference encompasses the tools that allow social scientists to determine what causes what. In a messy world, causal inference is what helps establish the causes and effects of the actions being studied—for example, the impact (or lack thereof) of increases in the minimum wage on employment, the effects of early childhood education on incarceration later in life, or the influence on economic growth of introducing malaria nets in developing regions. The book introduces students and practitioners to the methods necessary to arrive at meaningful answers to the questions of causation, using a range of modeling techniques and coding instructions for both the R and the Stata programming languages.
Yale University Press is publishing a beautiful physical copy, which is available for preorder now, and physical delivery on January 26, 2021.
In addition to a hard copy book, Yale has graciously agree to continue publishing a free online HTML version of the mixtape to my website. The free HTML version will be identical to the physical book but also include interactive R programming examples that can be run from the browser, which I think is pretty slick. It will be easy on the eyes and beautiful to gaze upon. If you like it, consider buying it, unless your willingness to pay for the hard copy is less than $35, in which case don't. Either way, the online HTML version is free and for the people.
Buy the print version today:
Contact information:
One Bear Place #98003Department of Economics
Baylor University
Waco, Texas 76798-8003
c: (254) 537-2239