Weihua (Edward) An

Weihua is a PhD student in sociology, doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality & Social Policy at Kennedy School of Government and graduate associate of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. He holds a master degree in statistics from Harvard (2009) and has strong interests in quantitative methods, especially causal inference, social network analysis, and Bayesian statistics. In sociological domains, he specializes in formal and statistical analysis of inequality and social policy, and sociology of health. Currently he is working on several projects, including development of Bayesian methods to incorporate uncertainties in propensity score estimation into causal inference, statistical methods to separate network effects (selection, influence and reflection) from neighborhood effects, socioeconomic determinants of friendship network centrality, decomposition of the rural-urban gap in social policy preferences, the psychological burden of spousal caregivers of cancer patients, etc. In leisure time, he likes playing basketball.

RESEARCH INTERESTS & EXPERTISE
Methodology: Causal Inference, Social Network Analysis, Bayesian Statistics Substantive Fields: Inequality & Social Policy, Sociology of Health, Organization Computing Skills: R, Stata, Eviews, Matlab, Bugs-family, UCINET, statnet, C, etc.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Soc203a 2009 Fall	Advanced Quantitative Research Methods	Teaching Fellow
Soc 190 2008/2009 Spring	Life and Death in the USA: Medicine and Disease in Social Context	Teaching Fellow
Soc 109 2008 Fall	Leadership and Organizations	Teaching Fellow
Courses Taught Previously	Public Administration, Public Economics, Management Science, etc.	Lecturer

PRESENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS

"Bayesian Propensity Score Estimators: Simulations and Applications", Applied Statistics Workshop, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, 10/14, 2009. [Link]

"Bayesian Propensity Score Estimators: Simulations and Applications", Graduate Methods and Models Class, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, 09/25, 2009. [Pic]

"Bayesian Causal Inference and Propensity Score Matching: Applications to the Evaluation of a Job Training Program", presented at the Quantitative Methods Session of the 2009 American Sociological Association Meeting at San Francisco, 08/11, 2009. [Pic]

"Why Poor Villagers Demand Less Social Protection: Decomposition of the Rural-Urban Gap in Social Policy Preferences", presented at the 5th Inter Ivy- League Sociological Symposium, Columbia University, 03/28, 2009. [Pic]

"Preferences for State Protection and Social Policies in Contemporary China", presented at the Plenary Session of the 4th China Social Policy Annual Conference, Fudan University, 07/17, 2008. [Pic]

"The Mental Health Burden of Spouses of Cancer Patients", presented at the 4th Inter Ivy-League Sociological Symposium, Princeton University, 03/29, 2008. [Pic]

"Firm Strategies and Value Creation in Biotech Industry", presented at the 3rd Inter Ivy-League Sociological Symposium, Brown University, 04/21, 2007. [Pic]

Executive Editor-in-Chief, Public Management in the New Century, edited by Hang Gao and Song Yang. China Business Press, 2001. [Pic]

Contact

617-496-8769 (Phone)
617-496-5794 (FAX)

568 William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office Hours

Tuesday 1PM - 3PM