People at ILR

Lars Vilhuber
people / faculty

Lars Vilhuber

Executive Director, Labor Dynamics Institute
Economics

Overview

His interest in statistical disclosure limitation issues is a consequence of his other research interest: working with highly detailed longitudinally linked data to analyze the effects and causes of mass layoffs, worker mobility, and the dynamics of the local labor market.

He is presently on the faculty of the Department of Economics at Cornell University, a Senior Research Associate at the ILR School at Cornell University, Ithaca, Executive Director of ILR’s Labor Dynamics Institute. He is the American Economic Association‘s Data Editor, affiliated with the U.S. Census Bureau (Center for Economic Studies, CES), and on advisory boards for French and Canadian restricted-access research data centers.

Over the years, he has also gained extensive expertise on the data needs of economists and other social scientists, having been involved in the creation and maintenance of several data systems designed with analysis, publication, replicability, and maintenance of large-scale code bases in mind.

Dr. Lars Vilhuber has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Universität Bonn, Germany, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada. He has worked in both research and government. He has consulted with government and statistical agencies in Canada and the United States.

Research Statement

His research interests lie in the dynamics of the labor market: working with highly detailed longitudinally linked data, he has analyzed the effects and causes of mass layoffs, worker mobility, and the interaction between housing and the local labor market. Over the years, he has also gained extensive expertise on the data needs of economists and other social scientists, having been involved in the creation and maintenance of several data systems designed with analysis, publication, replicability, and maintenance of large-scale code bases in mind. His research in statistical disclosure limitation issues is a direct consequence of his profound interest in making data available in a multitude of formats to the broadest possible audience. His knowledge about various data enclave systems comes from both personal experience and the desire to improve the experience of others. He is an expert on data access, reproducible practices, and attempts to convey that to broader audiences of scientists and others.

Publications

Journal Articles

Books

  • Shawn Cole, Iqbal Dhaliwal, Anja Sautmann, Lars Vilhuber. 2021. Handbook on Using Administrative Data for Research and Evidence-Based Policy. Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, 2021.

Book Chapters

  • John Abowd, Ian M. Schmutte, Lars Vilhuber. 2021. Disclosure Limitation and Confidentiality Protection in Linked Data. Wiley, 2021. Asaph Young Chun, Michael D. Larsen, Gabriele Durrant, Jerome P. Reiter.
  • Ian Schmutte, Lars Vilhuber. 2021. Balancing Privacy and Data Usability: An Overview of Disclosure Avoidance Methods. in Handbook on Using Administrative Data for Research and Evidence-Based Policy. Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, 2021. S. Cole, I. Dhaliwal, A. Sautmann, and L. Vilhuber.
  • Jim Shen, Lars Vilhuber. 2021. Physically Protecting Sensitive Data. in Handbook on Using Administrative Data for Research and Evidence-Based Policy. Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, 2021. S. Cole, I. Dhaliwal, A. Sautmann, and L. Vilhuber.
  • Lars Vilhuber. 2019. View from Academia: Making Confidential Data Part of Reproducible Research. in Methods to Foster Transparency and Reproducibility of Federal Statistics. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, 2019. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (63-66)
  • Lars Vilhuber. 2009. Adjusting imperfect data: Overview and case studies. in Wage Structure, Raises and Mobility: International Comparisons of the Structure of Wages Within and Across Firms. University of Chicago Press, 2009. Edward P Lazear, Kathryn L Shaw.
  • Lars Vilhuber, John Abowd, Fredrik Andersson, Kevin L McKinney, Marc Roemer, Bryce E Stephens, Simon Woodcock. 2009. The LEHD Infrastructure Files and the Creation of the Quarterly Workforce Indicators. in Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data. University of Chicago Press, 2009. Timothy Dunne, J Bradford Jensen, Mark J Roberts.
  • Lars Vilhuber, John Abowd, Kevin L McKinney. 2009. The link between human capital, mass layoffs, and firm deaths. in Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data. University of Chicago Press, 2009. Timothy Dunne, J Bradford Jensen, Mark J Roberts.
  • Lars Vilhuber, Lisa Dragoset. 2008. How Did Universal Primary Education Affect Returns to Education and Labor Market Participation in Uganda. in Youth in Africa’s Labor Market. Washington, DC, United States: World Bank, 2008. Marito Garcia, Jean Farès.
  • Lisa Dragoset, Lars Vilhuber. 2008. How Did Universal Primary Education Affect Returns to Education and Labor Market Participation in Uganda?. in Youth in Africa's Labor Market. World Bank, 2008. (263-280)
  • Lars Vilhuber, David N Margolis, Erik Plug, Véronique Simonnet. 2004. Early Career Experiences and Later Career Outcomes: An International Comparison. in Human Capital Over The Life Cycle - A European Perspective. London, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar, 2004. Catherine Sofer. (90-117)

Conference Proceedings

  • Lars Vilhuber. 2019. Report by the AEA Data Editor. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2019. (718-29)
  • Michelle Pistner, Aleksandra Slavković, Lars Vilhuber. 2018. Synthetic Data via Quantile Regression for Heavy-Tailed and Heteroskedastic Data. in Privacy in Statistical Databases. Springer International Publishing, 2018. Josep Domingo-Ferrer, Francisco Montes. (92-108)
  • Samuel Haney, Ashwin Machanavajjhala, John Abowd, Matthew Graham, Mark Kutzbach, Lars Vilhuber. 2017. Utility Cost of Formal Privacy for Releasing National Employer-Employee Statistics. SIGMOD 2017, 2017.
  • Lars Vilhuber, Jörg Drechsler. 2014. Synthetic Longitudinal Business Databases for International Comparisons. in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2014. Domingo-Ferrer, Josep .
  • Lars Vilhuber, Javier Miranda. 2014. Using Partially Synthetic Data to Replace Suppression in the Business Dynamics Statistics: Early Results. in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2014. Domingo-Ferrer, Josep .
  • Lars Vilhuber, Carl Lagoze, Jeremy Williams. 2013. Encoding Provenance Metadata for Social Science Datasets. in Communications in Computer and Information Science. Berlin, Germany: Springer LNCS Proceedings, 2013. xx. (12)(Accepted)
  • John Abowd, Kaj Gittings, Kevin L. McKinney, Bryce E. Stephens, Lars Vilhuber, Simon Woodcock. 2012. Dynamically Consistent Noise Infusion and Partially Synthetic Data As Confidentiality Protection Measures for Related Time-series. in 2012 Research Conference. Washington, DC, United States: Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, 2012. (40)
  • Lars Vilhuber, Ashwin Machanavajjhala, Daniel Kifer, John Abowd, Johannes Gehrke. 2008. Privacy: Theory Meets Practice on the Map. International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), 2008.
  • John Abowd, Ashwin Machanavajjhala, Daniel Kifer, Johannes Gehrke, Lars Vilhuber. 2008. Privacy: Theory Meets Practice on the Map. International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), 2008. (277-286)
  • Lars Vilhuber, John Abowd. 2008. How Protective Are Synthetic Data. in Privacy in Statistical Databases: Proceedings of the UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy International Conference PSD2008. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008. (239-246)

Professional Activities

  • Overview of reproducibility and replicability in economics, with a side trip to provenance. Presented to Banco de Portugal. 2021.
  • Enhancing accessibility and reproducibility in scientific publications: Improvements on both ends of the pipeline. Presented to Purdue University Statistics Department. 2021.
  • Challenges and Opportunities of Reproducibility when Data are Proprietary . Presented to NBER. 2021.
  • Improving Transparency and Reproducibility: Lessons from 1,000 economics papers. Presented to University of Wisconsin - Center for Demography of Health and Aging. 2021.
  • Panelist. Presented to Future of Privacy Forum. 2021.
  • Reproducibility and replicability in 5 years of AEJ:Applied. Presented to Banque de France. 2021.
  • Data Science Tools Workshop: Working with confidential data . Presented to McGill University. 2021.
  • Firm-Academic Research Collaborations in Economics - Journals’ Perspective. Presented to CES-IFO. 2021.
  • Organizer. Presented to American Statistical Association. 2021.
  • Panelist. Presented to American Statistical Association. 2021.
  • Principles of Transparent Research: Implementation Challenges. 2021.
  • Implementing Increased Transparency and Reproducibility in Economics - Some Lessons. Presented to National Academies + NIA. 2021.
  • Increasing Transparency for Register-based Research. Presented to IAB and Norwegian Centre of Taxation (NoCeT). Online. 2021.
  • Improving reproducibility in the social sciences: Challenges. Presented to RDA. Online (Edinburgh). 2021.
  • Town Hall Discussion. Presented to Georgia State University. online. 2021.
  • Presenting my research. Presented to Cornell Undergraduate Research Board. Online. 2021.
  • Data Curation at the American Economic Association. Presented to National Science Foundation. online. 2021.
  • Reproducibility and collaboration when your data is really large or confidential,. Presented to Cornell University Libraries. Online. 2021.
  • Panel on Creating Reproducible Research at Cornell. Presented to Cornell University Libraries. Online. 2021.
  • Demystifying Replication Requirements and Processes: Best Practices Viewed by AEA-Data Editor . Presented to AEA Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Online. 2021.
  • Reproducibility Potpourri - or why we need a standard README . Presented to BITSS/ UC Berkeley. Online. 2021.
  • Implementing Increased Transparency and Reproducibility in Economics - 1000 Reports and What You Can Do To Make It Better. Presented to Brookings Institution. Online. 2020.
  • Data Provenance in the Research Lifecycle: Report from the Trenches. Presented to St. Louis Federal Reserve. Online. 2020.
  • Implementing Increased Transparency and Reproducibility in Economics: Lessons Learned and What You Should Do. Presented to University of Waterloo. Online. 2020.
  • RDA Poster Session: Assessing Reproducibility when the Data is Confidential. Presented to Research Data Alliance. Online. 2020.
  • MICRODATA ACCESS: PERSPECTIVES FROM CANADA, FRANCE, THE UK AND THE US. Presented to Canadian Research Data Center Network. Online. 2020.
  • Citing Data: How to Cite Data for your Research Project. Presented to Cornell University Libraries. Online. 2020.
  • Practices for Data Transparency and Reproducibility. Presented to UC Berkeley. Online. 2020.
  • Computational Tools for Social Scientists Workshop. Presented to Cornell University. Online. 2020.
  • Computational Reproducibility, Transparency, and Credibility of Official Statistics. Presented to American Statistical Association. Online. 2020.
  • Replicability: Lessons Learned. Presented to Western Economic Association. Online. 2020.
  • Implementing Increased Transparency and Reproducibility in Economics. Presented to Cornell University. Web. 2020.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to Project TIER. Web. 2020.
  • working group discussions. Presented to UK Data Archive. London, UK. 2020.
  • Reproducibility in Economics. Presented to Office of National Statistics, UK. London, UK. 2020.
  • Implementing Increased Transparency, and Reproducibility in Economics. Presented to HEC Paris. Paris, France. 2020.
  • Implementing Increased Transparency, and Reproducibility in Economics. Presented to Urban Institute. Washington, DC. 2020.
  • Consuming Transparency: View from the Journal Side. Presented to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC. 2020.
  • Data in Canada - Looking Ahead. Presented to McGill University. Montreal, Canada. 2020.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to IAB. Nürnberg, Germany . 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to Congressional Budget Office. Washington, DC. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to American Enterprise Institute/ Policy Simulation Library. Washington, DC. 2019.
  • Practical steps to credibility and transparency in research: who should do what?. Presented to World Bank. Washington, DC. 2019.
  • Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures When Data Are Restricted-Access. Presented to University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, WI. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Demography and Ecology, and Center for Demography of Health and Aging. Madison, WI. 2019.
  • CONFIDENTIALITY PROTECTION AND PHYSICAL SAFEGUARDS: A REVIEW. Presented to International Statistical Institute. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2019.
  • Chair for: CUTTING-EDGE APPLICATIONS OF FORMAL PRIVACY IN NSOS: LESSONS LEARNED AND THOUGHTS ON FUTURE IMPLEMENTATIONS AROUND THE WORLD. Presented to International Statistical Institute. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2019.
  • Validating outcomes from synthetic data: results from a multi-year implementation. Presented to Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore. Singapore. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to Western Economic Association. San Francisco, CA. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München Economics Faculty and Open Science Center. Munich, Germany. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures . Presented to CIQSS. Montreal, Canada. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to UQAM. Montreal, Canada. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility. Presented to CASD (France). Paris, France. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to Collaboration of Montreal Economists. Montreal, Canada. 2019.
  • Two Perspectives on Commuting: A Comparison of Home to Work Flows Across Job-Linked Survey and Administrative Files. Presented to University of Georgia. Atlanta, GA. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to University of Georgia. Atlanta, GA. 2019.
  • metajelo: A metadata package for journals to support external linked objects. Presented to Digital Curation Centre. Melbourne, VIC, Australia. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to Australian Bureau of Statistics. Canberra, ACT, Australia. 2019.
  • Two Perspectives on Commuting: A Comparison of Home to Work Flows Across Job-Linked Survey and Administrative Files. Presented to Australian Bureau of Statistics. Canberra, ACT, Australia. 2019.
  • Replication and Reproducibility in Social Sciences and Statistics: Context, Concerns, and Concrete Measures. Presented to University of California Los Angeles. Los Angeles, CA. 2019.
  • Replicability of One Journal: a Comprehensive View. Presented to BITSS. Berkeley, CA. 2018.
  • Reproducibility Confidentiality Data Access. Presented to ADRF Network. Washington DC. 2018.
  • Two Perspectives on Commuting: A Comparison of Home to Work Flows Across Job-Linked Survey and Administrative Files. Presented to University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC, Canada. 2018.
  • Panel on Metadata Standards. Presented to Federal Committee on Statistical Methodolgy. Washington DC. 2018.
  • SPAIG Award Collaboration: The National Science Foundation-Census Research Network (NCRN). Presented to American Statistical Association. Vancouver, BC, Canada. 2018.
  • Usage and outcomes from a validation server: Experience with the Cornell Synthetic Data Server. Presented to International Statistical Institute. Marrakech, Morocco. 2017.
  • Making confidential data part of reproducible science. Presented to CNSTAT. Washington DC. 2017.
  • Freeform. Presented to CAF - Development Bank of Latin America. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2017.
  • Confidentiality Protection and Physical Safeguards. Presented to CAF - Development Bank of Latin America. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2017.
  • Experiments with Crowdsourcing Metadata in a Social Science Environment. Presented to DDI Alliance. Ithaca, NY. 2017.
  • Confidentiality Protection and Physical Safeguards: A Review. Presented to U.S. Census Bureau. Washington, DC. 2017.
  • Disclosure Limitation and Confidentiality Protection in Linked Data. Presented to CIRANO and CIQSS. Montreal, Canada. 2016.
  • Robustness of Employer List Linking to Methodological Variation. Presented to American Statistical Association . Chicago, IL. 2016.
  • Two Perspectives on Commuting and Workplace: A Microdata Comparison of Home-to-Work Flows Across Linked Survey and Administrative Files. Presented to American Statistical Association . Chicago, IL. 2016.
  • The NSF-Census Research Network in 2016: Taking stock, looking forward. Presented to Spatio-Temporal Statistics NSF-Census Research Network (STSN) at University of Missouri. Columbia, MO. 2016.
  • Les données massives (big data), un outil supplémentaire pour une décision publique éclairée. Presented to Association des Économistes Québecois. Québec City, Canada. 2016.
  • Crowdsourcing Codebook Development and Enhancements in CED²AR. Presented to NSF-Census Research Network. Washington, DC. 2016.
  • Crowdsourcing et métadonnées : défis et perspectives. Presented to Data Liberation Initiative. Montreal, Canada. 2016.
  • Quelques développements en cours aux USA et au Canada. Presented to Centre d'accès sécurisé distant. Paris, France. 2016.
  • Synthetic Establishment Microdata. Presented to Statistics Canada. Ottawa, ON. 2016.
  • Formal Privacy Protection for Data Products Combining Individual and Employer Frames. Presented to NSF-Census Research Network. Washington, DC. 2015.
  • Total Variability Measures for Selected Quarterly Workforce Indicators and LEHD Origin Destination Employment Statistics in OnTheMap. Presented to Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology. Washington, DC. 2015.
  • Synthetic Data Servers As Data Improvement and Access Mechanisms. Presented to Multiple. Istanbul, Turkey. 2015.
  • Formal privacy protection for data products combining individual and employer frames1. Presented to UNECE. Helsinki, Finland. 2015.
  • Using partially synthetic microdata to protect sensitive cells in business statistics. Presented to UNECE. Helsinki, Finland. 2015.
  • Synthetic Longitudinal Business Databases for International Comparisons. Presented to UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy. Eivissa, Spain. 2014.
  • A First Step Towards A German SynLBD: Constructing A German Longitudinal Business Database. Presented to UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy. Eivissa, Spain. 2014.
  • Synthetic Longitudinal Business Databases for International Comparisons. Presented to American Statistical Association. Boston, MA. 2014.
  • Measurement of Displacement Events and Their Consequences . Presented to American Statistical Association. Boston, MA. 2014.
  • Measuring Firm-level Displacement Events With Administrative Data. Presented to Society of Labor Economists. Arlington, VA. 2014.
  • Job Displacement in Jobless Recoveries. Presented to Society of Labor Economists. Arlington, VA. 2014.
  • Looking back on three years of Synthetic LBD Beta. Presented to International Statistical Association. Hong Kong, China. 2013.
  • Data Management of Confidential Data. Presented to ASA. Montreal. 2013.
  • Research Report. Presented to NSF-Census Research Network. Durham, NC. 2013.
  • Assessing the Natural Rate of Unemployment. Presented to Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Boston, MA. 2013.
  • Education, Flows and the Great Recession in the United States. Presented to Society of Labor Economists. Chicago, IL. 2012.
  • Estimating the contribution of labor reallocation to productivity growth: a Canada-US comparison . Presented to Institute für Arbeit- und Berufsforschung and COST. Nürnberg, Germany. 2012.
  • Data access in North America: Current state and future consequences . Presented to Data without Boundaries. Luxembourg. 2012.
  • Testimony. Presented to U.S. House of Representatives: Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. Washington, DC. 2012.
  • Disclosure Avoidance Through Noise Infusion and Synthetic Data: The Case of the Quarterly Workforce Indicators. Presented to Federal Committe on Statistical Methodology. Washington, DC. 2012.
  • Did the Housing Price Bubble Clobber Local Labor Market Job and Worker Flows When It Burst?. Presented to American Economic Association. Chicago, IL. 2012.
  • The Cornell NCRN Node: Overview. Presented to U.S. Census Bureau, National Science Foundation. Washington, DC. 2011.
  • World Markets and Local Markets: Using Integrated Employer-Employee Data for the United States to Study the Effects of Globalization on Local Labor Markets. Presented to International Statistical Institute. Dublin, Ireland. 2011.
  • multiple. Presented to US Census Bureau and Cornell University. Ithaca, NY. 2011.
  • National Estimates of Gross Employment and Job Flows from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators with Education Detail . Presented to Banco de Portugal. Porto, Portugal. 2011.
  • Science, Confidentiality, and the Public Interest. Presented to Institut fur Arbeitsmarkt-und Berufsforschung (IAB). Nuremberg, Germany. 2011.
  • The US Statistical System (in German). Presented to Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung. Nürnberg, Germany. 2011.
  • : Formal Privacy Guarantees and Analytical Validity of OnTheMap Public-use Data. Presented to NSF, US Census, IRS, Cornell University. Washington, DC. 2010.
  • National Estimates of Gross Employment and Job Flows from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators with Demographic and Industry Detail . Presented to Society of Labor Economics. London, UK. 2010.
  • Measuring firm-level displacement events with administrative data . Presented to ZEW. Mannheim, Germany. 2010.
  • Benefits of Providing Coordinated Access to Cornell University Synthetic Data and the Underlying Confidential Microdata. Presented to ICPSR. Ann Arbor, MI. 2010.
  • LED Operations. Presented to LEHD, U.S. Census Bureau. Arlington, VA. 2010.
  • Social Science Gateway. Presented to CISER. Ithaca, NY. 2009.
  • Using linked employer‐employee data to investigate the speed of adjustment in downsizing firms in Canada and the US. Presented to CISER. Ithaca, NY. 2009.
  • The Contribution of Labor Reallocation to Aggregate Productivity Growth: Evidence from Canada, France and the United States . Tokyo. 2009.
  • Using linked employer-employee data to investigate the speed of adjustment in downsizing firms in Canada and the US. Presented to Canadian Economics Association. Toronto, Canada. 2009.
  • Older Workers’ Geographic Mobility and Retirement . Presented to Society of Labor Economics. Boston, MA. 2009.
  • LED Enhancements . Presented to LEHD, US Census Bureau. Washington, DC. 2009.

Honors and Awards

  • U.S. Census Bureau Bronze Medal, U.S. Census Bureau. 2018
  • Statistical Partnerships Among Academe, Industry & Government Committee (SPAIG), American Statistical Association. 2017

Contact

352 East Ives Hall
607-330-5743

Areas of Expertise

Other Areas of Expertise

Data Dissemination, Longitudinal Employer and Household Data, Synthetic Data Products