6th seminar
Date：September 19, 2024, 15:00-Presenter：Masayuki Sato (Kobe University)
Title：Use and valuation of urban ecosystems
Venue：NIES (Middle Meeting Room)
Abstract：Urbanization is changing people's lifestyles and affecting the use and valuation of ecosystems, as indicated by the “loss of natural experience”. This is not necessarily a positive trend for ecosystem conservation. Previous studies have shown that as urbanization progresses, people's perception and valuation of nature and ecosystems have declined, and as a result, people's behavior in urban areas and ecosystem conservation have become inconsistent.
In this seminar, we discuss the issue of disparities in the use of nature (enjoyment of ecosystem services) as well as economic and time disparities as one of the problems of modern urban life, while taking into account the actual status of nature use by urban dwellers. Opportunities, possibilities, and choices of people's use of ecosystems will be discussed in relation to the evaluation of ecosystem services in terms of wellbeing.
5th seminar
Date：July 2, 2024, 14:00-
Presenter：Takehiko Hayashi (NIES)
Title： A crash course on the backdoor criterion, or the question of whether partial regression coefficients in multiple regression analysis can be interpreted as estimates of causal effects.
Venue：Online / NIES (Ohyama Memorial Hall)
Abstract: Multiple regression analysis is one of the most widely used and also one of the most widely misunderstood methods. In this seminar, I will explain the “backdoor criterion,” which provides a criterion for variable selection from the perspective of statistical causal inference, and consider what the partial regression coefficient in multiple regression analysis can mean.