Workshop in Maribor report (published on May 30th)
The project team from the University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, organized a workshop on analyzing panel data on May 23rd and 24th 2024 in Maribor, Slovenia. The event was a significant success, featuring insightful sessions and expert discussions.
On the first day, the workshop commenced with an introduction by the host and Slovenian project head, Andrej Kirbiš. The day was divided into two thematic sessions.
The morning session, led by Katja Kerman and Monika Lamot, provided an in-depth overview of research on the effect of political polarization on participation, based on published articles. The review particularly focused on the effects of affective polarization, highlighting several key issues for discussion. These included the measurement of affective polarization and participation, the lag between panel waves, and the selection of control variables. The session also explored theories and mechanisms such as social identity theory and emotions.
The discussion following this presentation covered various topics, including the type of participation measurement (intentions, reported, validated), the length of response scales for like/dislike questions, the object of these questions (party, candidates, or voters), the timing and lag between panel waves, issues concerning local elections in some Austrian regions, and selected aspects of sample design.
In the afternoon session, Ana Slavec focused on the distinction between probability panels and non-probability panels in panel data. She presented research from the past twenty years, demonstrating that probability panels generally offer better data quality for estimating population traits. However, she noted that this distinction may be less critical for studies estimating changes or correlations, where non-probability panels can be equally useful.
The second day featured a workshop by Christian Geiser, a world-renowned expert on statistics and Mplus, which covered latent growth curve modeling, autoregressive cross-lagged models, longitudinal mediation, and moderation. The practical sessions utilized statistical software Mplus and R, providing participants with hands-on experience.
Below are some pictures of the events.
Overall, the workshop was a highly successful event. The organizers from the University of Maribor extend their gratitude to the guests for their valuable expertise and to the project partners from Poland and Austria for their collaboration.