Jeremy Labrecque
@jeremylabrecque.bsky.social
Canadian epidemiologist and causal inference person at Erasmus Medical Center. Big fan of Northern Expsoure and Car Talk.
jeremylabrecque.org
jeremylabrecque.org
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
When fixed effects aren't fixed...
Important work by @dlmillimet.bsky.social and Marc Bellemare that should influence econometric practice.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Important work by @dlmillimet.bsky.social and Marc Bellemare that should influence econometric practice.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
On the (Mis) Use of the Fixed Effects Estimator
Data that span multiple units and time periods allow controlling for time-invariant heterogeneity correlated with the covariates. While researchers can do this in different ways, the fixed effects es...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
When fixed effects aren't fixed...
Important work by @dlmillimet.bsky.social and Marc Bellemare that should influence econometric practice.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Important work by @dlmillimet.bsky.social and Marc Bellemare that should influence econometric practice.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
this is one of my favourite observations about sample size calculations. (afaik first articulated by Miettinen in 1985)
November 25, 2025 at 10:56 AM
this is one of my favourite observations about sample size calculations. (afaik first articulated by Miettinen in 1985)
What's it called when you're waiting for the bus and there are two different buses that could take you home?
A doubly ro-busstop.
A doubly ro-busstop.
November 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
What's it called when you're waiting for the bus and there are two different buses that could take you home?
A doubly ro-busstop.
A doubly ro-busstop.
Should you include people in your study who have no opportunity to be exposed? Like someone with an absolute contraindication? Turns out the answer is...it depends.
There are conditions under which excluding them can actually increase bias through bias amplification.
There are conditions under which excluding them can actually increase bias through bias amplification.
The exposure potential restriction rule revisited - PubMed
There are people who cannot receive certain treatments or experience certain exposures. For example, people without a uterine cervix cannot receive an intrauterine device. This lack of exposure potential in some persons instigated an interesting discussion in the 1980s regarding whether such persons …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Should you include people in your study who have no opportunity to be exposed? Like someone with an absolute contraindication? Turns out the answer is...it depends.
There are conditions under which excluding them can actually increase bias through bias amplification.
There are conditions under which excluding them can actually increase bias through bias amplification.
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Great perspective from #CDSM2025: causal inference is 'what-if' analysis. You don’t have to get everything perfect—or how dare you use the c-word. What matters is laying out your assumptions transparently and showing us what happens when they're violated.
November 15, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Great perspective from #CDSM2025: causal inference is 'what-if' analysis. You don’t have to get everything perfect—or how dare you use the c-word. What matters is laying out your assumptions transparently and showing us what happens when they're violated.
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
🥳 Registration for abstracts for EuroCIM 2026 (Oxford) is now OPEN and the deadline for submissions is 9 January 2026: eurocim.org/oxford-2026/...
👉 Theme? “Causal inference in health, economic and social science”
👉 When? April 14-17
👉 Where? Oxford
👉 Register? eurocim.org/oxford-2026/...
👉 Theme? “Causal inference in health, economic and social science”
👉 When? April 14-17
👉 Where? Oxford
👉 Register? eurocim.org/oxford-2026/...
November 11, 2025 at 10:55 AM
🥳 Registration for abstracts for EuroCIM 2026 (Oxford) is now OPEN and the deadline for submissions is 9 January 2026: eurocim.org/oxford-2026/...
👉 Theme? “Causal inference in health, economic and social science”
👉 When? April 14-17
👉 Where? Oxford
👉 Register? eurocim.org/oxford-2026/...
👉 Theme? “Causal inference in health, economic and social science”
👉 When? April 14-17
👉 Where? Oxford
👉 Register? eurocim.org/oxford-2026/...
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Watch the full conversation here: zeteo.com/p/abdul-el-s...
Meet the Muslim Progressive Trying to Win Michigan for the Democrats
Bernie Sanders-backed Abdul El-Sayed, who wants an arms embargo on Israel and Medicare for All, is vying to be Michigan’s new US senator in a tight three-way primary race.
zeteo.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Watch the full conversation here: zeteo.com/p/abdul-el-s...
Probably 10 times a day (at least) I run into some form of this "not significant therefore null is true" problem.
There were many, many problems in the undergrad stats course I took, but one positive is they repeated a million "you cannot accept the null hypothesis."
There were many, many problems in the undergrad stats course I took, but one positive is they repeated a million "you cannot accept the null hypothesis."
"Regrettably, and despite the null hypothesis being simple, elegant and often underpinned by evidenced or reasoned convictions, conventional p-value analysis can only argue against the null hypothesis, never in favour of it."
Saying ‘no’ with confidence: statistical approaches to test for the absence of an effect | Biology Letters
Publishing non-significant findings is essential for the progress of science. However,
many of us forget that ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’ and believe
that a statistically non-sign...
doi.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Probably 10 times a day (at least) I run into some form of this "not significant therefore null is true" problem.
There were many, many problems in the undergrad stats course I took, but one positive is they repeated a million "you cannot accept the null hypothesis."
There were many, many problems in the undergrad stats course I took, but one positive is they repeated a million "you cannot accept the null hypothesis."
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
🚨Wow - this will be huge if it bears out. Exit polls show the pro-EU D66 party has WON the Dutch election.
The far-right PVV party of Geeet Wildsrs has lost 12 seats, according to exit polls.
Huge if true.
The far-right PVV party of Geeet Wildsrs has lost 12 seats, according to exit polls.
Huge if true.
October 29, 2025 at 8:09 PM
🚨Wow - this will be huge if it bears out. Exit polls show the pro-EU D66 party has WON the Dutch election.
The far-right PVV party of Geeet Wildsrs has lost 12 seats, according to exit polls.
Huge if true.
The far-right PVV party of Geeet Wildsrs has lost 12 seats, according to exit polls.
Huge if true.
Just read a paper that looked for "interactions" of the main exposure with like five different variables. Which me realize that this is basically the same problem as "risk factor" analyses except with interactions instead of main effects.
October 29, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Just read a paper that looked for "interactions" of the main exposure with like five different variables. Which me realize that this is basically the same problem as "risk factor" analyses except with interactions instead of main effects.
Qobuz
Spotify is now running ICE recruitment ads. We asked them to stop. They ignored us. Let's show them what we showed Disney. No Kings, No Collaborators, No Capitulators. indivisible.org/cancel-spotify
Don’t Stream Fascism: Cancel Spotify
indivisible.org
October 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Qobuz
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Factors associated with: problems of using exploratory multivariable regression to identify causal risk factors bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/...
I know who'll enjoy reading this: @jeremylabrecque.bsky.social
I know who'll enjoy reading this: @jeremylabrecque.bsky.social
Factors associated with: problems of using exploratory multivariable regression to identify causal risk factors
Many medical and epidemiological studies use multivariable regression to test whether several independent variables (exposures) are causal determinants of a health outcome. Where mutually adjusted reg...
bmjmedicine.bmj.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Factors associated with: problems of using exploratory multivariable regression to identify causal risk factors bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/...
I know who'll enjoy reading this: @jeremylabrecque.bsky.social
I know who'll enjoy reading this: @jeremylabrecque.bsky.social
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
In the past few months, I've stopped supporting all major US corporations (e.g. subscriptions). I thought it was going to be annoying but instead I've discovered so many better options like Qobuz for music streaming (which pays artists 4x more) and Infomaniak for file storage. Pure wins.
October 27, 2025 at 4:45 PM
In the past few months, I've stopped supporting all major US corporations (e.g. subscriptions). I thought it was going to be annoying but instead I've discovered so many better options like Qobuz for music streaming (which pays artists 4x more) and Infomaniak for file storage. Pure wins.
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
POV: The new singer of the Reading Rainbow theme song and the new host of Reading Rainbow meet for the first time in Canada 🥹📚🌈
Video Description:
Mychal and Bukola meet for the first time! They joyfully dance to the Reading Rainbow theme song, sung by Bukola ✨
youtube.com/@kidzuko?feature=shared
Video Description:
Mychal and Bukola meet for the first time! They joyfully dance to the Reading Rainbow theme song, sung by Bukola ✨
youtube.com/@kidzuko?feature=shared
October 25, 2025 at 6:25 PM
POV: The new singer of the Reading Rainbow theme song and the new host of Reading Rainbow meet for the first time in Canada 🥹📚🌈
Video Description:
Mychal and Bukola meet for the first time! They joyfully dance to the Reading Rainbow theme song, sung by Bukola ✨
youtube.com/@kidzuko?feature=shared
Video Description:
Mychal and Bukola meet for the first time! They joyfully dance to the Reading Rainbow theme song, sung by Bukola ✨
youtube.com/@kidzuko?feature=shared
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Are there earlier occurrences of groups being established to archive biological data to make them available for future analyses by researchers than this, which is from The British Association Committee on Biological Measurements, 1927?
October 24, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Are there earlier occurrences of groups being established to archive biological data to make them available for future analyses by researchers than this, which is from The British Association Committee on Biological Measurements, 1927?
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Research is mostly discovering cleaner ways to express what you overcomplicated yesterday
October 22, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Research is mostly discovering cleaner ways to express what you overcomplicated yesterday
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
The recording is now available so that you can confirm that I indeed have a German accent and color-match my outfits with my Zoom background.
youtu.be/YL0co26ng-g?...
youtu.be/YL0co26ng-g?...
October 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
The recording is now available so that you can confirm that I indeed have a German accent and color-match my outfits with my Zoom background.
youtu.be/YL0co26ng-g?...
youtu.be/YL0co26ng-g?...
Good thing it doesn’t fall near April 27 which is King’s Day here in the Netherlands. That would be awkward
October 16, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Good thing it doesn’t fall near April 27 which is King’s Day here in the Netherlands. That would be awkward
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
October 16, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Most graphs of the fertility rate depict the 'period fertility rate', which is based on a single year's data and doesn't necessarily reflect how many children women actually have across their lifetimes.
I've used data from the Human Fertility Database to show the cumulative number instead:
I've used data from the Human Fertility Database to show the cumulative number instead:
October 1, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Most graphs of the fertility rate depict the 'period fertility rate', which is based on a single year's data and doesn't necessarily reflect how many children women actually have across their lifetimes.
I've used data from the Human Fertility Database to show the cumulative number instead:
I've used data from the Human Fertility Database to show the cumulative number instead:
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Science is grounded in observation. Measurement is a tool for observation. Measurements should be evaluated for validity and reliability/uncertainty. Scientists who use measurements without understanding their properties are not really scientists at all.
Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.
One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.
THREAD 🧵
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.
One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.
THREAD 🧵
The threat of analytic flexibility in using large language models to simulate human data: A call to attention
Social scientists are now using large language models to create "silicon samples" - synthetic datasets intended to stand in for human respondents, aimed at revolutionising human subjects research. How...
arxiv.org
October 1, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Science is grounded in observation. Measurement is a tool for observation. Measurements should be evaluated for validity and reliability/uncertainty. Scientists who use measurements without understanding their properties are not really scientists at all.
Reposted by Jeremy Labrecque
Since the Ezra & Ta-Nehisi discussion is still happening: the main point I think most are missing is that Klein is saying the role of the journalist-intellectual is to do strategic politics, whereas Coates says the role of the journalist-intellectual is to tell the truth
September 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Since the Ezra & Ta-Nehisi discussion is still happening: the main point I think most are missing is that Klein is saying the role of the journalist-intellectual is to do strategic politics, whereas Coates says the role of the journalist-intellectual is to tell the truth
One reason I oppose associational or other non-causal language in research questions is it lets people think they don't need causal inference to answer causal questions.
(When the underlying question is causal, of course. Which it almost always is.)
(When the underlying question is causal, of course. Which it almost always is.)
September 30, 2025 at 7:52 AM
One reason I oppose associational or other non-causal language in research questions is it lets people think they don't need causal inference to answer causal questions.
(When the underlying question is causal, of course. Which it almost always is.)
(When the underlying question is causal, of course. Which it almost always is.)