The 2019 CHaRMS Annual Workshop will take place on Tuesday June 18th at Riddel Hall. The theme of this year's programme is "Health costs of war and trauma", and will feature sessions on conflict and trauma in Northern Ireland, the legacy of war, and long-run effects of adversity. James Smith (RAND) will deliver the keynote talk.

Further details, including the programme and registration, are available here. The conference is free and open to all.

Thursday 7th March 2019, 1200-1300, Newark Room, Lanyon Building
 
Professor Agnes Nairn (Chair of Marketing, School of Economics, Finance and Management, University of Bristol)
 
https://www.agnesnairn.co.uk/

“Everybody Wants to Change the World!”

We want our research to make a difference but working out how to do this isn’t always easy.  Balancing the theoretical demands of journals with the practical demands of governments, charities, businesses and policy advocates can be tricky and frustrating.  In her talk, Agnes Nairn will discuss some of the multi-stakeholder projects she’s got herself involved with in various countries and will share some of things she’s learned (often the hard way) about trying to do the kind of research we hope might just make things a bit better for some.

"Exposure to Ambient Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Child Mortality: Pooled Evidence from 43 Low- and Middle-Income Countries"
 
All welcome, but you are asked to email m.mcgovern@qub.ac.uk if you would like to register as places may be limited. Tea/coffee and lunch will be served, please advise if you are attending and have any dietary restrictions.

The abstract is below.

January 10th 2019, 1300-1430, Lecture Theatre, Riddel Hall
 
Abstract
 
Many low- and middle-income countries are experiencing high and increasing ambient fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5). The effect of PM2.5 on mortality is usually modelled using concentration response curves extrapolated from studies conducted in settings with low ambient air pollution. We directly estimate the association between child mortality and exposure to PM2.5, both overall and by PM2.5 source. We pool data of over 500 000 children from 69 nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys that were conducted in 43 low- and middle-income countries between 1998 and 2014, and we calculate in-utero exposure to ambient PM2.5 using high resolution satellite data that is matched to the child’s place of residence. We estimate the association between early childhood PM2.5 exposure and the odds of child mortality, adjusting for child level, parent-level, and household-level characteristics. We find that exposure in utero an the first month of life to overall PM2.5 above 12.3 µg/m³ is associated with a higher odds of child mortality, particularly neonatal mortality. Exposure to dust and sea-salt has little effect, while exposure to other (mainly anthropogenic, carbonaceous) particulates is associated with increased odds of neonatal mortality even at levels as low as 3.4 µg/m, with exposure above the median level raising the odds of neonatal mortality by over one third. While our results are consistent with the current World Health Organization guideline of limiting the overall ambient PM2.5 level at less than 10 µg/m³, they suggest the need for a much lower limit for harmful, carbonaceous PM2.5.

Registration and further details here. There will be sessions on employment, population studies, and health and wellbeing, with a keynote from Professor Liam Delaney on "Self-Control, Health, & Public Policy". 

CHaRMS Working Paper 18/01:

S. Rokicki, J. Cohen, G. Fink, J. Salomon,  M. B. Landrum "Inference with difference-in-differences with a small number of groups"

https://ideas.repec.org/p/qub/charms/1801.html

Published Version

Professor Carol Newman (TCD), 1430-1600, BDO Library, Riddel Hall

"So fresh and so clean: urban community engagement to improve the sustainability of drainage infrastructure"

Abstract

Schedule and registration details here:

http://www.qucharms.co.uk/events.html

Available here: http://www.qucharms.co.uk/annual-workshop.html