“Fighting Poverty with Data: Research at the Intersection of Machine Learning and Development Economics” with Joshua Blumenstock ’03

Friday, April 15th at 12pm in Downey House 113. In wealthy nations, novel sources of “big data” from the internet and social media are creating new opportunities for commercial profit, enabling new approaches to social science research, and inspiring new perspectives on public policy. In developing economies, however, fewer sources of robust data exist, and … Read more

“Signaling not Persuasion: the Surprising Power of the Presidential Bully Pulpit” with Justin Grimmer, Stanford

Thursday, March 24th at 4:30pm in Russell House Why do Presidents “go public”?  We use novel natural experiments, social media data, and extensive news analysis to show that Presidents have little direct effect on public opinion when they appeal to the public.  Rather, we argue, Presidents go public to signal to Congress that an issue … Read more