Spencer Allen

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy. Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

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Social Science Research is preparing a special issue focused on a critical but underexplored dimension of AI: its role in widening or narrowing social inequalities. The deadline for abstracts is now Nov 17th. Read more here: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Trends and Disparities in Broadband Internet Access in the United States, 2013 to 2023 - Spencer Allen, 2025 Since the turn of the century, sociologists and other scholars concerned about digital inequality have most often been concerned about disparities in the qualit...

Free to read! New research in Socius from ASA member Spencer Allen @spencerallen.bsky.social @um-psc.bsky.social shows that, while broadband access has increased in the U.S. since 2013, gaps by race, education, and poverty still persist. @sociusjournal.bsky.social‬

Excited to share my recent publication in @sociusjournal.bsky.social ! Despite improvements to home broadband, racial/ethnic, educational, and income disparities continue to prevent equitable internet access. We can’t assume that everyone is online, and policy can address cost and access limitations

@spencerallen.bsky.social: tell me you're a @burgards.bsky.social student without telling me you're a @burgards.bsky.social student.

We are the #BakersAndTheBest sometimes @um-psc.bsky.social because of our amazing trainees like @spencerallen.bsky.social 💛💙🧁

A picture of a Michigan block M cookie cake with blue and yellow icing flowers on top.

Shout out to @spencerallen.bsky.social for starting our short week off right! Thanks for sharing with us! #GoBlue 😋

Over a third of faculty members sign open letter asking Beilock to “defend the values and ideals of higher education” Over 370 faculty members have signed the letter as of May 7.

My employer, Dartmouth College, is only Ivy not to sign a "defend higher ed" letter. But as our newspaper reports, an uncommonly high number of mild-mannered faculty have signed a letter demanding that our president join the fight. Even the economists. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2025...

Very busy morning in Ann Arbor, where I’ve spent the morning baking a copious quantity of Maize & Blue Chocolate Chip Cookies for @umsociology.bsky.social’s grad student recruitment this week!

When the world is falling apart and you have a bottle of pure NH maple syrup that’s about to go bad, you make maple cupcakes! Thanks @sashakillewald.bsky.social for the recipe 🧁🍁

Census Bureau stopped work on data for protecting trans rights, former director says Because of a Trump executive order, the Census Bureau is stopping work on statistics that could help protect the rights of transgender people, its recently departed director, Robert Santos, tells NPR.

My latest @npr.org story: Because of a Trump executive order, the Census Bureau is stopping work on statistics that could help protect the rights of transgender people, Robert Santos confirms to NPR in his first published interview since resigning as the bureau's director

Bar charts of employee tenure, salary, and age from the DOGE website. The y axis is unlabeled, and horizontal lines providing some sense of scale are unevenly spaced

not sure what's worse about the DOGE site: unsecured databases, leaking of classified information, or these chart crimes

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the infectious diseases of the world, may your love spread voraciously as public agencies have a harder time tracking and preventing your existence 😷🤒

Donald Trump to review CDC scientific papers before publication: Report The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is halting all publication of scientific papers in order to comply with Donald Trump's executive order on gender.

It’s giving Reviewer 2.

www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...

Crackers, cheeses, and fruits arranged in a ceramic dish shaped like Alaska.

In my expert opinion, grad school is significantly more palatable with an Alaska-shaped cheese board

It’s my understanding ICPSR is hybrid. Not sure how long that’s been the case, but I know folks who took some courses remotely and seemed to enjoy them.

I think I chose the most inopportune historical moment to submit an NSF graduate research fellowship proposal on “Political Polarization in Education and Health Outcomes” 🙃😭

Digital lifeline: High-speed internet linked to drop in COVID-19 death rates The mortality rate from COVID-19 was about 50% lower in U.S. counties with higher internet access in the summer and early fall of 2020.

A new #umichresearch study by @um-psc.bsky.social trainee @spencerallen.bsky.social found that broadband connection was a key factor in reducing mortality and incidence during the early COVID pandemic. From Michigan News: news.umich.edu/digital-life...

Congrats!

My pub took north of 1,550 days (thanks Excel!) from start to finish to complete. So much has happened in that time…

I imagine this is a miscommunication. When I interview prospective UGs for Dartmouth, it’s common for them to say “I’m applying for X major” when they’re only admitted to the college, not a dept. The student may want to take Tuck or Tuck-adjacent Econ classes, but the nuance got lost somewhere.

🎊 We're proud to share the first publication from @um-psc.bsky.social trainee @spencerallen.bsky.social. The findings in this 🧵, which show how internet access mattered for COVID outcomes, are reported just as net neutrality has been struck down in federal court. @umisr.bsky.social #UMich

This paper was a labor of love, and I’m grateful for all the guidance I’ve received from mentors, colleagues and friends @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social (I’m especially indebted to my UG advisor Jason Houle) @umsociology.bsky.social @um-psc.bsky.social and elsewhere. 9/9

In sum, I find evidence that internet access was a net-positive for COVID-19 outcomes in the US. Despite this, internet access remains unequally allocated in the US and around the world, and more robust efforts are needed to close the digital divide. 8/

Bar chart showing predicted margins of weekly COVID-19 mortality rate across three levels of internet access in the 4, 8, and 12 weeks after July 14, 2020. In all three time periods, counties with the highest internet access were predicted to have lower mortality rates than counties with the lowest internet access.

(3) Internet access was also negatively associated with COVID-19 deaths. In fact, high internet access counties were predicted to have ~ 50% of the COVID-19 deaths as low internet access counties. This association was similarly robust across all time periods 7/

Bar chart showing predicted margins of weekly COVID-19 incidence rate across three levels of internet access in the 4, 8, and 12 weeks after July 14, 2020. In all three time periods, counties with the highest internet access were predicted to have lower infection rates than counties with the lowest internet access.

(2) Internet access was negatively associated with COVID-19 cases in summer and fall 2020, but that effect grew weaker in longer time periods. 6/

I have three main findings: (1) Internet access was positively associated with masking in July 2020, but the effect size in a fully controlled model is modest. 5/

Unlike prior studies, I focus on the summer and fall of 2020 and use three time periods (4, 8, and 12 wks from July 14, 2020) to better understand the pre-vaccine period and to gauge the pandemic’s momentum. 4/

In this paper, I argue that internet access was actually *useful* in spreading true information about masking and subsequently reducing COVID-19 case and death rates in the US. 3/