Global Development: Intermediate Issues in Politics, Policy and Data

Catalog description

New sources of data (big data, small data and everything in between) raise the exciting possibility that such data could benefit the world’s poor. This course is designed to provide students with an intermediate-level review of recent research that deploys new data for insights on development and hands-on analysis of different kinds of datasets. Students will investigate 3 key themes in development: corruption and accountability, migration, and Authoritarian Backsliding. As we explore these topics, students will develop data analytical skills that are useful across a wide range of research and real-world applications. Students will learn how to implement four of the most common research designs in the social sciences: observational studies, randomized experiments (in particular, survey experiments), regression discontinuity designs, and difference-in-difference designs. Students will have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of data types, from survey and government-produced administrative data to text as data. As such, students will come face-to-face with the opportunities and challenges for data-intensive approaches to international development.