Blog posts

Are fixed-effects models sufficient for causal inference?

May 27, 2025

Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

Doing an experiment is by far the gold standard for conducting causal inference research. One common practice, particularly in quantitative social science, is doing randomized control trials (RCTs).

But here’s the scoop: if you’re a young researcher and just starting out, doing RCTs can be super expensive. In fact, for young researchers looking to build their portfolios early in their careers and pave the way for future success, the high expenses associated with RCTs can pose a significant challenge.

How should we respond to electability polling?

February 05, 2024

Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

Approaching Indonesia’s presidential election on this year’s Valentine’s Day, pollsters are racing to publish the presidential candidates’ electability statistics. Some argued that the polling results did not represent the actual data, some said that the pollsters got paid by one of the candidates, and some just agreed with the polling results. Thus, the difference between public opinions and vague perception of presidential electability polling results raises a question of how the public should respond to the polling results.

And this article will discuss the issue further.

TL;DR, it’s a very simple question, but to answer it requires a complex thought process. For me, we first need to answer the questions by asking further questions such as Why we need the electability polling in the very first place? Why we cannot entirely trust polling results? When can we trust it? And what to do about it?

Setting up a virtual environment for a Python project

November 23, 2022

Photo by Kelvin Han on Unsplash

I need to write this on a post because I keep forgetting this by the time I need to create a new python project. Plus, I always get confused when figuring out to set up a Python virtual environment, so I did my research and created new blog posts to help other students in understanding the virtual environment.

What I wish I knew when I learned Data Science

November 18, 2022

I started to learn Data Science in college but began to actively use it when working as Research Assistant. During my learning journey, I met lots of unnecessary mistakes that ended up in the learning block. In this article, I will share with you several mistakes that you can avoid so that you can experience a fruitful and smooth learning process.

5 reasons why I started to write blog posts

November 17, 2022

Hi, my name is Ega. As a continue my journey as a master’s student, I spend my leisure time reviewing my portfolio and tidying it up into a structured personal webpage. To begin with, I started with research, and I found out that most professionals write their own blog posts on their personal websites or Blogspot. I wonder what’s the point of writing blog posts on a personal webpage. And voila, I thought it would be a good idea if I give it a try to answer my very own question. At least, there are five reasons why I started to write one, which are: