The PhD defence will be in Abels utsikt - Niels Henrik Abels hus. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.
Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask questions ex auditorio at the end of the defence.
Trial lecture
13th of June, time: 10:15 am, room 1259 (Abels utsikt).
Inference and estimands under interference in causality
Main research findings
This thesis investigates how we can draw reliable conclusions about the causal effects and benefits of treatments, even when some data is missing or when those benefits are not fully identified. It combines theory, new methods, and real-world applications to improve how we study cause-and-effect relationships in complex settings.
We develop new ways to handle missing data, a common challenge in real-world research. When key information is missing, selection bias makes it harder to understand the general effect in the population of interest. This work provides conditions and strategies to decide when it is still possible to draw valid conclusions. We also propose new tools to estimate treatment effects more accurately. The proposed methods are flexible, robust, and stable: they adapt to different types of data, perform well under imperfect conditions, and give reliable results even in small samples. This helps researchers use the data they have while being clear about uncertainty.
The practical part of the thesis focuses on children with ADHD in Norway. It examines how medication and special education support affect academic achievement. The findings show that medication has only a small effect, and surprisingly, special education support is linked to worse academic results. This raises important questions about how such support is designed and delivered.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Erin Evelyn Gabriel, University of Copenhagen
- Professor Robin Evans, University of Oxford
- Professor Sven Ove Samuelsen, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Associate Professor Johan Pensar, University of Oslo
- Researcher Professor Guido Biele, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Chair of defence
Professor Thordis Linda Thorarinsdottir
Host of the session
Professor Sven Ove Samuelsen, University of Oslo