Statistics of Inequality and Discrimination

Catalog description

Many social questions about inequality, injustice and unfairness are, in part, questions about evidence, data, and statistics. This class lays out the statistical methods which let us answer questions like "Does this employer discriminate against members of that group?", "Is this standardized test biased against that group?", "Is this decision-making algorithm biased, and what does that even mean?" and "Did this policy which was supposed to reduce this inequality actually help?" We will also look at inequality within groups, and at different ideas about how to explain inequalities between groups. The class will interweave discussion of concrete social issues with the relevant statistical concepts. Prerequisite: 36-202