Big Data

The spread of information technology has lead to the generation of vast amounts of data on human behavior. This course explores ways to use this data to better understand the societies in which we live. The course weaves together methods from machine learning (OLS, LASSO, trees) and economics (reduced form causal inference, economic theory, structural modeling) to answer real world questions in a sequence of projects. We will use these projects as a backdrop to weigh the importance of causality, precision, and computational efficiency. Knowledge of basic econometrics and programming is assumed.