Training the Next Generation

Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems

A central part of Opportunity Insights’ mission is to train the next generation of researchers and policy leaders on methods to study and improve economic opportunity and related social problems. This page provides lecture materials and videos for a course entitled “Using Big Data Solve Economic and Social Problems,” taught by Raj Chetty and Greg Bruich at Harvard University.

This course provides an introduction to modern applied economics in a manner that does not require any prior background in economics or statistics. It is intended to complement traditional Principles of Economics (Econ 101) courses. Topics include equality of opportunity, education, health, the environment, and criminal justice. In the context of these topics, the course provides an introduction to basic statistical methods and data analysis techniques, including regression analysis, causal inference, quasi-experimental methods, and machine learning.

The course was most recently taught at Harvard in Spring 2019, and, with an enrollment of 375 students, was one of the largest classes in the university. The course also increased gender diversity in Economics: 49% of the students who took the course were women, higher than in any other undergraduate Economics course taught at Harvard in the past academic year (among classes with at least 20 students). To learn more about the motivation for this class and its impact, see this article. We Want to Hear from You!
Have you used these materials in your own classes? Your feedback is very valuable as we work to improve and expand the course materials we offer. Please fill out this form, and, in addition to tracking your responses we will record your email and send you updates as new materials become available.

Lecture Materials

Materials

Course Syllabus

 PDFDocX

Complete Set of 18 Lectures

 PDFPPTVideo

Lecture 1
The Geography of Upward Mobility in America

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 2
Causal Effects of Neighborhoods

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 3
Moving to Opportunity vs. Place-Based Approaches

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 4
The American Dream in Historical Perspective

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 5
Upward Mobility, Innovation, and Economic Growth

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 6
Higher Education and Upward Mobility

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 7
The Causal Effect of Colleges

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 8
Primary Education

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 9
Teachers and Charter Schools

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 10
Racial Disparities in Economic Opportunity

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 11
Improving Health Outcomes

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 12
The Economics of Health Care and Insurance

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 13
Improving Judicial Decisions

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 14
Effects of Air and Water Pollution

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 15
Policies to Mitigate Climate Change

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 16
Income Taxation

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 17
Behavioral Public Economics

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Lecture 18
Institutions and Economic Development

PDFPPTLecture NotesVideo

Empirical Project 1
Stories from the Atlas: Describing Data using Maps, Regressions, and Correlations

PDFDocxZip

Empirical Project 2
Do Smaller Classes Improve Test Scores? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

PDFDocXZip

Empirical Project 3
The Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) Experiment

PDFDOCXZip

Empirical Project 4
Using Google DataCommons to Predict Social Mobility

PDFDOCXZip

To see the previous version of this class, taught at Stanford in 2017

 Click Here
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