Week 8: Big Data to Help

Instructions

In this week’s meeting, we look at some examples of how big data can be used to help with policy design and implementation. To prepare for this meeting, be sure to check out The Opportunity Atlas.

Required readings

• Esty, Daniel and Rushing, Reece (2007). The Promise of Data-Driven Policymaking. Issues in Science and Technology, 23(4), pp. 67–72.
• Jean, Neal and Burke, Marshall and Xie, Michael and Davis, W Matthew and Lobell, David B and Ermon, Stefano (2016). Combining Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning To Predict Poverty. Science, 353(6301), pp. 790–794.
• Chetty, Raj and Friedman, John N and Hendren, Nathaniel and Jones, Maggie R and Porter, Sonya R (2018). The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots Of Social Mobility. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 25147.

Further reading

• Proville, Jeremy and Zavala-Araiza, Daniel and Wagner, Gernot (2017). Night-Time Lights: A Global, Long Term Look at Links to Socio-economic Trends. PloS one, 12(3), pp. e0174610.
• Donaldson, Dave and Storeygard, Adam (2016). The View From Above: Applications of Satellite Data in Economics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(4), pp. 171–98.
• Chetty, Raj and Hendren, Nathaniel and Kline, Patrick and Saez, Emmanuel (2014). Where Is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography Of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(4), pp. 1553–1623.