MKZ Workshop "Causal Analysis of Panel Data using Structural Equation Modeling" by Prof. Dr. Mayerl

MKZ Workshop as part of SoDoc SoDoc Workshop 2025.

The analysis of panel data is a central tool for analyzing causal and reciprocal relationships as well as change and stability in the social sciences. Panel analysis with SEM includes the following modeling variants in particular: 

• autoregressive cross-lagged models 
• fixed effects panel models
• latent growth curve models 
• hybrid models: latent growth curve models with structured residuals 

The workshop focuses on appropriate model specification and interpretation of results, but also on methodological pitfalls of panel analysis and typical problems of unobserved heterogeneity, measurement equivalence, time-varying and -invariant predictors, reverse causality and feedback loops as well as measurement error correlations. The workshop introduces the application-oriented statistical analysis of panel data (e.g. with data from the Gesis Panel) with structural equation models (SEM) using typical SEM software (especially R with the lavaan package, but also Mplus and AMOS).

Time: Wednesday, August 20, 2025, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Location: to be announced