The adoption of certain behaviors—like smoking or physical activity—is recognized as a major factor affecting health. Analyzing the social determinants of these behaviors, then, should be considered an important goal, since it may improve our understanding of the more general phenomenon of...

I will give a brief overview of modern statistical methods for estimating treatment effects that have recently become popular in social and biomedical sciences. These methods are based on the potential outcome framework developed by Donald Rubin. The specific methods discussed include regression...