Nikos Tzavidis

Senior Lecturer in Social Statistics and PGT Director

Tel: 0161 306 6953
Fax: 0161 275 4722
nikos.tzavidis@manchester.ac.uk

Room G13
CCSR
School of Social Sciences
Humanities Bridgeford Street
University of Manchester
MANCHESTER
M13 9PL

I joined the University of Manchester in September 2007. I am currently Senior Lecturer in Social Statistics at the Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester. Since completing a Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of Southampton, I held posts as Lecturer in Statistics at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London (2005-2007) and as Research Fellow at the Southampton Statistical Science Research Institute, University of Southampton (2003-2005).

Current Research Projects

• Administrative Data - Methods, Inference and Network (ADMIN), July 2008 – July 2011
  

• Multilevel and Multivariate Response Multilevel Models for Clustered Cohort Data: An Application to Early Contextual Risk and Children’s Emotional and Behavioural Problems, June 2007 - February 2009
  

• Small Area Methods for Poverty and Living Condition Estimates (SAMPLE)

  
  

Research interests

• Small area estimation
  
• M-quantile/quantile models
  
• Multilevel models
  
• Robust inference
  
• Geographically Weighted Regression
  
• Spatial analysis
  
• Applications of small area models in poverty mapping
• Applications of multilevel models

 

Research grants – Under review

Grant Proposal to FP7 (2010). Local Welfare Indicators and Policies for Social Cohesion (PI – University of Manchester – Partner in a European Consortium)

 

Grant Proposal to ESRC (2010). ESRC- Seminar Series on Impact (Co-PI)

Grant Proposal to FP7 (2009). Methodologies and Modelling Research Infrastructure. (PI – University of Manchester – Partner in a European Consortium)

 

Jounal Articles (published or currently under review)

Salvati, N., Tzavidis, N., Chambers, R. and Pratesi, M.: M-quantile geographically weighted regression for small area estimation. Invited to review and resubmit to Test.

Chambers, R., Chandra, H., and Tzavidis, N.: Mean Squared Error estimation for linear predictors for domains. Invited to review and resubmit to Survey Methodology. 

Flouri, E., Mavroveli, S., and Tzavidis, N. (2010). Ability, regularity, and resilience: Modelling the mediated moderation of area and family risk effects on young children's emotional and behavioural problems. Invited to review and resubmit to Development and Psychopathology. 

Pratesi, M., Tzavidis, N., Giusti, C. and Salvati, N.: Resistance to outliers of M-quantile and robust random effects small area models for income and poverty estimation. Under review by Computational Statistics and Data Analysis. 

Tzavidis, N., Marchetti, S., and Chambers, R. (2010). Robust estimation of small area means and quantiles. To appear in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics. 

Chambers, R. and Tzavidis, N. (2006). M-quantile models for small area estimation. Biometrika ,93, 255-268. 

Tzavidis, N., Salvati, N., Pratesi, M. and Chambers, R. (2008). M-quantile models with application to poverty mapping. Statistical Methods and Applications ,17, 393-411. 

Flouri, E., Tzavidis, N., and Kallis, C. (2009). Area and family effects on the psychopathology of the Millennium Cohort Study children and their older siblings. To appear in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02156.x] 

Salvati, N., Tzavidis, N., Pratesi, M. and Chambers, R. (2009). Spatial M-quantile models for small area estimation. To appear in Statistics in Transition. 

Tzavidis, N.  and Chambers, R. (2005). Bias adjusted small area estimation with M-quantile models. Statistics in Transition, 7, 707-713. 

Flouri, E., Mavroveli, S., and Tzavidis, N. (2009). Modelling risks: Area deprivation, family socio-economic disadvantage, and adverse life events effects on young children's psychopathology. To appear in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. [DOI: 10.1007/s00127-009-0101-x] 

Flouri, E., Tzavidis, N., and Kallis, C. (2009). Adverse life events, area socio-economic disadvantage, and psychopathology and resilience in young children: The importance of risk factors' accumulation and protective factors' specificity. To appear in European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 

Flouri, E. and N. Tzavidis (2008). Psychopathology and prosocial behavior in adolescents from socio-economically disadvantaged families: the role of proximal and distal adverse life events. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. [online first DOI 10.1007: s00787-008-0693-9]. 

Tzavidis, N. and Lin, Y-X. (2006). Estimating from cross-sectional categorical data subject to misclassification and double sampling: Moment-based, Maximum Likelihood and Quasi-Likelihood approaches. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences, 1-13.

 

Working papers to be soon submitted

Tzavidis, N., Salvati, N., Geraci, M. and Bottai, M. M-quantile random effects models for hierarchical and repeated measures data

Tzavidis, N., and Brown, J. J.  An M-quantile/expectile measure of school performance. 

Chambers, R., Tzavidis, N., Salvati, N., and Chandra, H. Outlier robust small area estimation. 

Tzavidis, N., Salvati, N., and Chambers, R.  Non-parametric M-quantile random effects models

Working papers (methodology currently under development)

Fabrizi, E, Salvati, N., Pratesi, M, and Tzavidis, N.  M-quantile regression with complex survey data.

 

Tzavidis et al. Recent advances in model-based small area estimation of poverty indicators. 

Joshi, H., Verropoulou, G., Cooksey, E., and Tzavidis, N.: Combining childrearing with work: Do maternal employment experiences compromise child development.

 

Papers in international conferences and seminars

Invited papers

Resistance to outliers of M-quantile and robust random effects small area estimation models -Invited paper to be presented at the 2nd International Workshop of the ERCIM Working Group on Computing & Statistics, Limassol, Cyprus, October 2009.

Outlier robust small area estimation - Invited paper to be presented at the ISI conference in Durban, South Africa, August 2009.

Nonparametric and semiparametric models in small area estimation - Invited paper to be presented at the JSM conference in Washington DC, US, August 2009.

An M-quantile/expectile measure of school performance - Invited paper to be presented at the conference of the Royal Geographical Society, Manchester, August 2009.

Robust small area estimation: A comparison between M-quantile models and Robust EBLUP estimation. - Invited paper presented at the small area estimation conference in Elche, Spain, June 2009.

M-quantile random effects models. - Invited seminar, Department of Statistics and Mathematics Applied to Economics, University of Pisa, January 2009 (with Salvati).

M-quantile random effects models. - Invited seminar, Department of Statistics, University of Milano Bicocca, July 2009.

M-quantile Geographically Weighted Regression models for small area estimation with different levels of geo-referenced population auxiliary information. - Invited Paper, First Workshop of the ERCIM Working Group on Computing & Statistics, Neuchatel, Switzer- land, June 2008.

Spatial models and small area estimation. - Invited paper, Oxford Research Methods Festival, Spatial Statistics Session - St Catherine's College, Oxford, July 2008.

Gender differences in wage mobility: A quantile regression approach. - Invited seminar, Institute of Education, University of London, February 2008.

M-quantile Geographically Weighted Regression models for small area estimation. - Invited seminar, Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton, February 2008.

Robust estimation of small area means and distributions. - Invited Paper, Conference of the European Survey Research Association, June 2007 Prague.

Robust Geographically Weighted Regression models for spatial data. - Invited Talk, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, May 2008.
Estimating distributions for small areas using M-quantile and random effects models. Invited Talk, Conference of the Swedish Statistical Office, Stockholm, Sweden, September 2006 .

Introduction to data analysis with quantile models. - Invited Talk, Conference of the Swedish Statistical Office, Stockholm, Sweden September 2006 .

Multiquantile diagnostics for multilevel models. - Invited Paper, 55th Conference of the International Statistical Institute, Sydney, Australia, April 2005.

Estimating distributions for small areas using M-quantile and random effects models. - Invited Talk, University of Toulouse, March 2005.

Contributed papers

M-quantile random effects models for hierarchical and repeated measures data. - Contributed paper to be presented at the conference of the Royal Statistical Society, UK -
Edinburgh, September 2009.

Combining childrearing with work: do maternal employment experiences compromise child development. - Contributed paper to be presented at the International Population Conference, Marrakech, October 2009.

Bootstrap mean squared error estimation for small area quantiles. - Contributed paper presented at the small area estimation conference in Elche, Spain - June 2009.

M-quantile random effects models for hierarchical and repeated measures data - Contributed paper presented at the conference of the Italian Statistical Association, Pescara, Italy - July 2009.

Children of working mothers: Does mother's employment affect children's development?- Contributed Paper, European Population Conference, Barcelona, July 2008.

Robust Geographically Weighted Models for Small Area Estimation. - Paper in Specialised Session, presented at the International Statistical Institute's (ISI) Satellite Conference on Small Area Estimation Pisa, September 2007.

Spatial M-quantile Models for Small Area Estimation. - Presented at the conference of the Italian Statistical Association, Turin, June 2006.

Estimating Distributions for Small Areas. - Challenges in Statistics Production for Domains and Small Areas, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland, August 2005.

M-quantile Models for Small-area Estimation. - Presented at the Joint Statistical Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 2004.

 

Using Double Sampling to Correct Gross Flows for Misclassification Error: Moment-based
Inference vs. Likelihood-based Inference. - Presented at the Joint Statistical Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 2004.

Estimating Labour Force Gross Flows Under Misclassification and Double Sampling. -Presented at 54th Conference of the International Statistical Institute, Berlin, Germany, August 2003.

Teaching

Teaching Interests: Statistical inference (introductory and advanced); Generalised linear models; Multilevel models; Sampling; Small area estimation; Quantile regression and robust inference; Statistical computing; Computer intensive methods

Teaching in academic year 2008-09

- Multilevel Models
- Longitudinal Data Analysis
- Two one day courses from CCSR's programme of external courses (Aspects of Statistical
Modelling; Introduction to Longitudinal Data Analysis)

Teaching in academic year 2007-08

Further Statistical Design and Analysis: This course consists of three one day courses on aspects of statistical modelling, conceptualizing longitudinal data and longitudinal data analysis including event history analysis

PhD supervision

• Nestor Arcia (Year 3 - First Supervisor - Developing a system of small area estimation in Cuba)
• Susan Ramsey (Year 3 - First Supervisor - The process and consequences of population ageing in Cuba)
• Naomi Marquis (Year 2 - First Supervisor - Local population and housing change: The ethnic and social Dimensions)
• Stephen Jivraj (Year 1 - First Supervisor - The effect of internal migration on the social composition of neighbourhoods)
• Sos Ketende (Year 2 - Second supervisor external for the Institute of Education, University of London - Essays on missing data analysis and nonresponse in cohort studies)
  

MSc supervision in 2008-09

• Simon Eder - Outlier robust estimation in random effects models
  

 

Administration & academic leadership

• Programme director of the MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics

• Member of the postgraduate committee - School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
• Member of the executive committee of the Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Mancheste
• Coordinator of the Spatial Estimation and Analysis (SEA) research group at the Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester
• Council member (UK representative) of the European Working Group on Small Area Estimation (2007-)
• Member of the general assembly and steering committee of the EU funded SAMPLE Project
• Member of CCSR’s Social Statistics research group
• Quality assurance representative for the Bedford Group for Lifecourse and Statistical Studies on the quality assurance committee at the Institute of Education, University of London (2006-07)
  

Organisation of conferences & seminars

• Member of the scientific committee of the small area estimation conference hosted by the Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche, June 29 - July 01, 2009
• Member of the organising committee of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) satellite conference on small area estimation hosted by the University of Pisa in September 2007
• Organiser of the Methodology Seminar Series at the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton (2003-2005)

 

Visiting research fellowships and visits paid or partly paid by the hosts

• Centre for Longitudinal Studies, IOE, University of London (2007-)
• Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton, UK (2005-)
• School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, University of Wollongong, Australia (2003, 2005, 2007)
• Department of Statistics and Mathematics Applied to Economics, University of Pisa (2006, 2007, 2008)
• Greek Ministry of Employment and Social Security. Collaboration on small area estimation (2007)
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005, 2007)
• Statistics Sweden (2007)
  

Awards

• Student Paper Award of the Social Statistics, Government Statistics and Survey Research Methods Sections of the American Statistical Association (2004)
  
• Visiting Research Fellow Award, University of Wollongong, Australia (2003)
  
• Award for PhD Studies , Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (2000-2003)
  
• Award for Academic Performance, Greek State Scholarships Foundation (1996-1997)
  
• Award for Academic Performance, Greek State Scholarships Foundation (1995-1996)
  
• Award for Academic Performance, Greek State Scholarships Foundation (1994-1995)
  

 Collaborative research networks

• Centre for Statistical and Survey Methodology, University of Wollongong, Australia
  

• Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London
  

• Department of Mathematics and Statistics Applied to Economics, University of Pisa, Italy
  

• School of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London
  

• Office for National Statistics
  

• Swedish Bureau of Statistics

Membership of professional bodies

• Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
  
• Member of the American Statistical Association

 

Refereeing

Reviewer for: UK Research Councils; Biometrics, JRSS A; Survey Methodology; Computational Statistics and Data Analysis; Statistics and Computing; Annals of Applied Statistics (Journal of the French Statistical Association); Statistics