Megan Verhagen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1262226 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Megan Verhagen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Megan |
| FAMILY NAME | Verhagen |
| SIGNATURE | VERHAGEN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leverhulme Trust |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2746-0309 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Does Price Personalization Ethically Outperform Unitary Pricing? A Thought Experiment and a Simulation Study
Merchants often use personalized pricing: they charge different consumers different prices for the same product. We assess the ethicality of personalized pricing by generalizing and extending an earlier model by Coker and Izaret (Journal of Business Ethics 173:387–398, 2021) who found that price personalization ethically outperforms unitary pricing. Using a simulation analysis, we show that these results crucially depend on the choice of paramete…
The rise of machine learning in the academic social sciences
Incorporating Machine Learning into Sociological Model-Building
Quantitative sociologists frequently use simple linear functional forms to estimate associations among variables. However, there is little guidance on whether such simple functional forms correctly reflect the underlying data-generating process. Incorrect model specification can lead to misspecification bias, and a lack of scrutiny of functional forms fosters interference of researcher degrees of freedom in sociological work. In this article, I p…
Nowcasting Daily Population Displacement in Ukraine through Social Media Advertising Data
In times of crisis, real-time data mapping population displacements are invaluable for targeted humanitarian response. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, forcibly displaced millions of people from their homes including nearly 6 million refugees flowing across the border in just a few weeks, but information was scarce regarding displaced and vulnerable populations who remained inside Ukraine. We leveraged social media data from …
How Do Researchers Question Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Assessment of Developmental Research Methods
Both the kinds of exchanges and the context under which children are questioned may affect the quality of data. Yet, little is known about how developmental scientists communicate with children for research. Using manifest content analysis, the 3,119 manuscripts published in the top 20 developmental outlets in 2018 were coded for methodology, examining whether researchers communicated directly with children, how they did so, and how they contextu…
A Pragmatist’s Guide to Using Prediction in the Social Sciences
Prediction is an underused tool in the social sciences, often for the wrong reasons. Many social scientists confuse prediction with unnecessarily complicated methods or with narrowly predicting the future. This is unfortunate. When we view prediction as the simple process of evaluating a model’s ability to approximate an outcome of interest, it becomes a more generally applicable and disarmingly simple technique. For all its simplicity, the value…
Learning loss due to school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic
Significance School closures have been a common tool in the battle against COVID-19. Yet, their costs and benefits remain insufficiently known. We use a natural experiment that occurred as national examinations in The Netherlands took place before and after lockdown to evaluate the impact of school closures on students’ learning. The Netherlands is interesting as a “best-case” scenario, with a short lockdown, equitable school funding, and world-l…
The law of attraction
A Pragmatist's Guide to Using Prediction in the Social Sciences
Prediction is an underutilized tool in the social sciences, often for the wrong reasons. Many social scientists confuse prediction with unnecessarily complicated methods or with narrowly predicting the future. This is unfortunate. When we view prediction as the simple process of evaluating a model’s ability to approximate an outcome of interest, it becomes a more generally applicable and disarmingly simple technique. For all its simplicity, the v…
Assessing LGBT People's Perceptions of Police Legitimacy
Although lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have achieved increased acceptance and access to social institutions in recent years, they have continued to be confronted with persistent homophobic attitudes, including from U.S. law enforcement personnel. Police culture often fosters these beliefs, and consequently results in the under-policing of LGBT citizens when victimized, but over-policing in places of leisure. This relations…
Assessing LGBT People's Perceptions of Police Legitimacy
Although lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have achieved increased acceptance and access to social institutions in recent years, they have continued to be confronted with persistent homophobic attitudes, including from U.S. law enforcement personnel. Police culture often fosters these beliefs, and consequently results in the under-policing of LGBT citizens when victimized, but over-policing in places of leisure. This relations…
Nowcasting Daily Population Displacement in Ukraine through Social Media Advertising Data
In times of crisis, real-time data mapping population displacements are invaluable for targeted humanitarian response. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, forcibly displaced millions of people from their homes including nearly 6 million refugees flowing across the border in just a few weeks, but information was scarce regarding displaced and vulnerable populations who remained inside Ukraine. We leveraged social media data from …
Incorporating Machine Learning into Sociological Model-Building
Quantitative sociologists frequently use simple linear functional forms to estimate associations among variables. However, there is little guidance on whether such simple functional forms correctly reflect the underlying data-generating process. Incorrect model specification can lead to misspecification bias, and a lack of scrutiny of functional forms fosters interference of researcher degrees of freedom in sociological work. In this article, I p…
Assessing LGBT People's Perceptions of Police Legitimacy
Although lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have achieved increased acceptance and access to social institutions in recent years, they have continued to be confronted with persistent homophobic attitudes, including from U.S. law enforcement personnel. Police culture often fosters these beliefs, and consequently results in the under-policing of LGBT citizens when victimized, but over-policing in places of leisure. This relations…
Learning loss due to school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic
Significance School closures have been a common tool in the battle against COVID-19. Yet, their costs and benefits remain insufficiently known. We use a natural experiment that occurred as national examinations in The Netherlands took place before and after lockdown to evaluate the impact of school closures on students’ learning. The Netherlands is interesting as a “best-case” scenario, with a short lockdown, equitable school funding, and world-l…
The law of attraction
A Pragmatist's Guide to Using Prediction in the Social Sciences
Prediction is an underutilized tool in the social sciences, often for the wrong reasons. Many social scientists confuse prediction with unnecessarily complicated methods or with narrowly predicting the future. This is unfortunate. When we view prediction as the simple process of evaluating a model’s ability to approximate an outcome of interest, it becomes a more generally applicable and disarmingly simple technique. For all its simplicity, the v…
How Do Researchers Question Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Assessment of Developmental Research Methods
Both the kinds of exchanges and the context under which children are questioned may affect the quality of data. Yet, little is known about how developmental scientists communicate with children for research. Using manifest content analysis, the 3,119 manuscripts published in the top 20 developmental outlets in 2018 were coded for methodology, examining whether researchers communicated directly with children, how they did so, and how they contextu…
A Pragmatist’s Guide to Using Prediction in the Social Sciences
Prediction is an underused tool in the social sciences, often for the wrong reasons. Many social scientists confuse prediction with unnecessarily complicated methods or with narrowly predicting the future. This is unfortunate. When we view prediction as the simple process of evaluating a model’s ability to approximate an outcome of interest, it becomes a more generally applicable and disarmingly simple technique. For all its simplicity, the value…
Nowcasting Daily Population Displacement in Ukraine through Social Media Advertising Data
In times of crisis, real-time data mapping population displacements are invaluable for targeted humanitarian response. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, forcibly displaced millions of people from their homes including nearly 6 million refugees flowing across the border in just a few weeks, but information was scarce regarding displaced and vulnerable populations who remained inside Ukraine. We leveraged social media data from …
The rise of machine learning in the academic social sciences
Incorporating Machine Learning into Sociological Model-Building
Quantitative sociologists frequently use simple linear functional forms to estimate associations among variables. However, there is little guidance on whether such simple functional forms correctly reflect the underlying data-generating process. Incorrect model specification can lead to misspecification bias, and a lack of scrutiny of functional forms fosters interference of researcher degrees of freedom in sociological work. In this article, I p…
Does Price Personalization Ethically Outperform Unitary Pricing? A Thought Experiment and a Simulation Study
Merchants often use personalized pricing: they charge different consumers different prices for the same product. We assess the ethicality of personalized pricing by generalizing and extending an earlier model by Coker and Izaret (Journal of Business Ethics 173:387–398, 2021) who found that price personalization ethically outperforms unitary pricing. Using a simulation analysis, we show that these results crucially depend on the choice of paramete…
Computer Science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Data science (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Machine learning (3 works)