Welcome to a Changing World
The Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) is dedicated to discovering how people around the globe live, think, interact, age, invest, and make important, life-changing decisions. Our in-depth research and analysis are deepening the understanding of human behavior in a wide range of economic and social contexts.
Our ultimate goal: to improve social welfare by informing and influencing decision-making in the public and private sectors. Along the way, we are leading a creative revolution in how scientists conduct social science and economic research through the use of innovative technology. Tomorrow is here, today.
CESR
Research Areas
At CESR, our scientists, colleagues and staff pursue compelling, data-driven research in the social sciences and economics that further understanding, policy making and quality of life. In broad terms, our significant areas of interest include:
Aging
Children & Families
Development Economics
Education Economics
Financial Decision Making
Health, Health Disparities, and Socio-Economic Status
Inequality
Mobile Health
Self-Reporting
Subjective Well-Being
Work Disability
Centers and Programs
Behavioral and Health Genomics Center
BEST – Behavioral Economics Studio
BHO – Brain Health Observatory @ USC
CARE – Center for Applied Research in Education
CSS – Center for Self-Report Science
CSHI – Center for the Study of Health Inequality
IGEMS – Interplay of Genes and Environment Across Multiple Studies
Institute for Food System Equity
HALE – Center for Health and Labor Economics
LABarometer
Program for Children and Families
Program on Global Aging, Health, and Policy
SCRAP Lab – Section on Clinical Research in Aging and Psychology
Understanding America Study
The USC Understanding America Study (UAS) is creating an in-depth portrayal of the people in the U.S. – their daily lives and their opinions. This 15,000+ Internet panel is yielding insights and information of significant value to policy makers, government agencies, non-profit organizations, opinion pollsters, social science researchers, corporations, and more.
Upcoming Events – Seminar | Victoria Barone | April 29
Monday, April 29, 2024
Victoria Barone – University of Notre Dame
12pm-1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of the opioid epidemic on political outcomes by leveraging rich geographic variation in exposure to the crisis. We study its effect on the Republican vote share in House and presidential elections from 1982 to 2020. Our results suggest that greater exposure to the opioid epidemic continuously increased the Republican vote share, starting in the early 2000s. This higher vote share translated into Republicans winning additional seats in the House from 2012 until 2020 and House members holding more conservative views. These effects are explained by changes in voter views rather than in voter composition.
Bio: Victoria Barone is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests lie at the intersection of labor, public, and health economics. Her research studies the optimal design of paid sick leave systems and the origin and unfolding of the opioid epidemic.
Upcoming Events – Seminar | Gabriella Conti | May 6
Gabriella Conti – UCL
Bio: Gabriella’s areas of interest are health economics, the economics of human development, and biology and economics. Her research draws on both the biomedical and the social sciences with the aim of understanding the developmental origins of health inequalities, the role of child development as input in the production of lifecycle health and the behavioural and biological pathways through which early life shocks, investments and policies affect well-being throughout the lifecourse.
Gabriella has published in top journals in different disciplines, such as Science, PNAS, Pediatrics, the Economic Journal, the Journal of Econometrics and Lancet. Her work has been mentioned in the New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and discussed in the British Parliament.
Gabriella has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Economics, which “recognises the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising”; and the Nick Hales Award from the DOHaD society, for a “young and emerging investigator who has made an outstanding scientific contribution to the DOHaD field”. She is also the PI of a 5-year ERC Consolidator Award from the European Research Council and ranks among the top 3% Female Economists for the last 10 years publications.
Newsroom | Margy Gatz in the Los Angeles Times
January – Margy Gatz
Steve Lopez quoted Dr. Margy Gatz in the Los Angeles Times on Aging and Memory.
Featured Researcher – Kyla Thomas
The cultural mechanisms through which social and economic inequalities are reproduced in the labor market.
Because I believe positive social change requires rigorous empirical research.
My first class with my undergraduate mentor, Gabriel Rossman. He introduced me to the sociology of culture and later encouraged me to write a senior thesis.
Employers are much more likely to discriminate on the basis of class-based cultural traits when they are evaluating female applicants for customer-facing jobs.
Things change — Sociologists are far better at explaining why they stay the same.
The relationship between race- and class-based discrimination in U.S. hiring.
Stata
Sticky notes
Leave it all on the field.
Our tolerance for high levels of social and economic inequality.
Tap dancing
Contact Us
USC University Park Campus
CESR – Los Angeles, CA
635 Downey Way
VPD 305
Los Angeles, CA 90089-3332
Tel: 213.821.1850
Fax: 213.821.2716
USC Capital Campus
CESR East – Washington, DC
1771 N Street NW
WDC 400
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 213.821.1850
Fax: 213.821.2716