Jasjeet S. Sekhon Robson Professor of Political Science and Statistics Senior Fellow, Berkeley Institute for Data Science UC Berkeley sekhon@berkeley.edu Curriculum Vitae

Software

Forestry: Provides Functions for Fast Random Forests, with honesty, ridge penalized splitting and ridge regression for predictions, and boosting

Estimating Heterogenous Treatment Effects (Causal Tool Box)

Persuasion Experiment Design Tool

Multivariate and Propensity Score Matching Software for Causal Inference

R Version of GENetic Optimization Using Derivatives (GENOUD)

Robust Estimation Software

GENetic optimization and Bootstrapping of LInear Structures (GENBLIS)

Selected Reprints and Working Papers

• "Uniform, nonparametric, non-asymptotic confidence sequences." With Steve Howard, Aaditya Ramdas, and Jon McAuliffe. Annals of Statistics.

• "Exponential line-crossing inequalities." With Steve Howard, Aaditya Ramdas, and Jon McAuliffe. Probability Surveys.

• "Linear Aggregation in Tree-based Estimators." With Sören Künzel, Theo Saarinen, and Edward Liu.

• "Inference on a New Class of Sample Average Treatment Effects." With Yotam Shem-Tov. Journal of the American Statistics Assocation. Formally entitled "Efficient Estimation of Average Treatment Effects under Effect Heterogeneity." Software: estCI.

• "Active Matrix Factorization for Surveys" Annals of Applied Statistics. With Chelsea Zhang, Sean Taylor, and Curtiss Cobb.

• "Overlap in High-Dimensional Observational Studies." Journal of Econometrics. With Alex D'Amour, Peng Ding, Avi Feller, and Lihua Lei.

• "Shrinkage Estimators in Online Experiments" With Drew Dimmery and Eytan Bakshy. KDD, 2019.

• "CausalToolBox: Estimator Stability for Heterogenous Treatment Effects." With Sören Künzel, and Simon Walter. Observational Studies. Forthcoming.

• "Transfer Learning for Estimating Causal Effects using Neural Networks." With Sören Künzel, Bradly C. Stadie, Nikita Vemuri, Varsha Ramakrishnan, and Pieter Abbeel.

• "Meta-learners for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Machine Learning." With Peter Bickel, Sören Künzel, and Bin Yu. PNAS, forthcoming. Software: Heterogenous Treatment Effects.

• "Generalized Full Matching." With Fredrik Savje and Mike Higgins. Software: quickmatch.

• "Worth Weighting? How to Think About and Use Sample Weights in Survey Experiments." With Luis Campos, Luke Miratrix, and Alexander Theodoridis. Political Analysis. 2018. Winner of the 2019 Warren Miller Prize.

• "The Design of Field Experiments With Survey Outcomes: A Framework for Selecting More Efficient, Robust, and Ethical Designs" With David Broockman and Joshua Kalla. Political Analysis, 25(4), 435-464. 2017. Also see our Persuasion Experiment Design Tool and our replication archive.

• "On Interpreting the Regression Discontinuity Design as a Local Experiment." With Rocio Titiunik. Advances in Econometrics. 2017.

• "Improving Massive Experiments with Threshold Blocking." With Mike Higgins and Fredrik Savje. PNAS, 2016 vol. 113 no. 27 7369-7376. Also see: [Slides] and [VIDEO] and a memo on estimation and inference: "Blocking Estimators and Inference Under the Neyman-Rubin Model."

• "Lasso Adjustments of Treatment Effect Estimates in Randomized Experiments." With Adam Bloniarz, Hanzhong Liu, Cun-Hui Zhang and Bin Yu. PNAS, 2016 vol. 113 no. 27 7383-7390.

• "Understanding Regression Discontinuity Designs as Observational Studies." With Rocio Titiunik. Observational Studies. 2: 174-182, 2016.

• "Estimating Causal Effects: Considering Three Alternatives to Difference-in-Differences Estimation." With Stephen O'Neill, Noemi Kreif, Richard Grieve, and Matthew Sutton. Health Serv Outcomes Res Methodol. 16:1-21. 2016

• "From Sample Average Treatment Effect to Population Average Treatment Effect on the Treated: Combining Experimental with Observational Studies to Estimate Population Treatment Effects." With Erin Hartman, Richard Grieve, and Roland Ramsahai. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A. 2015.

• "The Asymmetric Role of Religious Appeals in India." With Tanu Kumar and Pradeep Chhibber.

• "Cause or Effect? Turnout in Hispanic Majority-Minority Districts." With John Henderson and Rocio Titiunik. Political Analysis, Political Analysis 2016 doi: 10.1093/pan/mpw013 Supplmental Appendix

• "Adjusting Treatment Effect Estimates by Post-Stratification in Randomized Experiments." With Luke Miratrix and Bin Yu. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Methodology). 75 (2): 369-396. 2013. Supplementary Material.

• "When Natural Experiments Are Neither Natural Nor Experiments." With Rocio Titiunik. American Political Science Review, 106 (1): 35-57. 2012. Winner of the 2009 Robert H. Durr Award. Supplemental material. A previous draft of this paper was titled: "Exploiting Tom DeLay: A New Method for Estimating Incumbency Advantage and the Effect of Candidate Ethnicity on Turnout."

• "Elections and the Regression-Discontinuity Design: Lessons from Close U.S. House Races, 1942-2008." With Devin Caughey. Political Analysis, 19 (4): 385-408. 2011. Winner of the 2012 Warren Miller Prize. An appendix for this paper is available: RD appendix. Replication files are available in a zipfile. A previous version of this paper was distributed with the title "Regression-Discontinuity Designs and Popular Elections: Implications of Pro-Incumbent Bias in Close U.S. House Races".

• "Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness in Patient Subgroups: A Comparison of Propensity Score Methods with an Automated Matching Approach." With Radice, Ramsahai, Grieve, Kreif, and Sadique. International Journal of Biostatistics, 8 (1). 2012. DOI: 10.1515/1557-4679.1382

• "The Relative Performance of Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimators." With Kristin E. Porter, Susan Gruber and Mark J. van der Laan. International Journal of Biostatistics, 7(1). 2011

• "A Nonparametric Matching Method for Covariate Adjustment with Application to Economic Evaluation (Genetic Matching)." With Richard Grieve. Health Economics. 21(6): 695-7142. 2011

• "Endogeneity in Probit Response Models." With David A. Freedman. Political Analysis, 18(2): 138-150. 2010. A PREFACE is available as well.

• "Genetic Matching for Estimating Causal Effects: A General Multivariate Matching Method for Achieving Balance in Observational Studies." With Alexis Diamond. Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(3): 932-945. 2013. Winner of the Gosnell Prize.

• "Multivariate and Propensity Score Matching Software with Automated Balance Optimization: The Matching package for R". Journal of Statistical Software, 42(7): 1-52. 2011. Please also see my Multivariate and Propensity Score Matching Software Page.

• "Genetic Optimization Using Derivatives: The rgenoud package for R". Journal of Statistical Software, 42(11): 1-26. 2011. Winner of the 2012 Society for Political Methodology Software Award. Please also see the GENOUD Software Page.

• "Statistics, False Inferences, and Unacknowledged Uncertainties in Health Care Reform (pre-publication version)." Published version in Significance September, 2010.

• "Opiates for the Matches." Annual Review of Political Science, 12: 487-508. 2009.

• "Causality." With F. Daniel Hidalgo. International Encyclopedia of Political Science.

• "Evaluating Health Care Programs by Combining Cost with Quality of Life Measures: A Case Study Comparing Capitation and Fee for Service." Health Services Research, 43 (4): 1204-1222. 2008.

• "The Neyman-Rubin Model of Causal Inference and Estimation via Matching Methods." The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology, 271-200. 2008.

• "Alternative Balance Metrics for Bias Reduction in Matching Methods for Causal Inference."

• "The Varying Role of Voter Information Across Democratic Societies." Working Paper. A previous version of this paper was entitled "Updating Voters: How voters act as if they are informed". Winner of the Robert H. Durr Award for "the best paper applying quantitative methods to a substantive problem" presented at the 2004 MPSA conference.

• "The Art of Benchmarking: Evaluating the Performance of R on Linux and OS X". The Political Methodologist, 14(1), 2006.

• "Black Candidates and Black Voters: Assessing the Impact of Candidate Race on Uncounted Vote Rates." With Michael C. Herron. Journal of Politics, 67 (1). 2005. Supplementary material for this article is available HERE.

• "The 2004 Florida Optical Voting Machine Controversy: A Causal Analysis Using Matching." Also see my Voting Irregularities page.

• "Steroid-Responsive (Autoimmune?) Sclerosing Cholangitis." With Raymond T. Chung, M.D., Mark Epstein, M.D., and Marshall M. Kaplan, M.D. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 50, 10: 1839-1843. October 2005. Because of copyright restriction, this is a pre-publication version. The publication version is available at Springer Link.

• "Quality Meets Quantity: Case Studies, Conditional Probability and Counterfactuals." Perspectives on Politics, June: 281-293. 2004.

• "Robust Estimation and Outlier Detection for Overdispersed Multinomial Models of Count Data." With Walter R. Mebane, Jr. American Journal of Political Science, 48 (April): 391-410. 2004. Software and replication archive is available HERE.

• "Overvoting and Representation: An examination of overvoted presidential ballots in Broward and Miami-Dade counties." With Michael C. Herron. Electoral Studies, 22: 21-47. 2003.

• "Coordination and Policy Moderation at Midterm." With Walter R. Mebane, Jr. American Political Science Review, 96 (1): 141-157. 2002

• "The Butterfly Did It: The Aberrant Vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, Florida." With Jonathan N. Wand, Kenneth W. Shotts, Walter R. Mebane, Jr., Michael C. Herron and Henry E. Brady. American Political Science Review, 95 (4): 793-810. 2001.

• "A Comparative Analysis of Multinomial Voting Irregularities: Canada 2000." With Jonathan N. Wand and Walter R. Mebane, Jr. Proceedings of the American Statistical Society. 2001.

• ``Genetic Optimization Using Derivatives: Theory and Application to Nonlinear Models.'' With Walter Mebane, Jr. Political Analysis. 189-213. 1998.

• "Detecting and Correcting Election Irregularities" With Walter R. Mebane, Jr. and Jonathan N. Wand.

Courses

• The Statistics of Causal Inference in the Social Sciences (Political Science c236A; Statistics c239A)
  • Syllabus
  • Course Website

• Quantitative Methodology in the Social Sciences Seminar (Political Science 236B; Statsitics 239B)