Measuring Development (VI): Data Integration and Data Fusion

Thank you for joining our March 31st online conference, “Measuring Development: Data Integration and Data Fusion.”

See the complete schedule with includes links to presentations and papers. We will be posting video recordings of the talks in the coming weeks.

Participants learned how new sources of “big” data–including call detail records, satellites, and remote sensing networks–are changing the landscape of global development, while offering timely research opportunities during the COVID-19 crisis. These data sources are particularly valuable to researchers and decision-makers as they provide data at a much higher frequency and lower marginal cost than traditional surveys. While big data and survey data can each be useful on their own, hybrid approaches that enrich big data with survey data enable exciting new analytical opportunities.

In an environment where traditional forms of field-based data collection will be constrained for the foreseeable future, it is particularly important to highlight non-traditional methods for collecting and analyzing data related to international development.

Event Details

MeasureDev 2020 is brought to you by CEGA in partnership with the World Bank’s ​Development Impact Evaluation​ (DIME)​ group and Innovations in Big Data Analytics​. The conference was held online on Tuesday, March 31st. 

Our first panel featured talks on how integrated data methods are contributing to the COVID-19 response.

Joshua Blumenstock, CEGA Faculty Co-Director and Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information, delivered the keynote address. Blumenstock uses new methods to analyze large-scale behavioral datasets, often stitching together network communication data with satellite data and ground-truth survey data to better understand human and economic development in poor and marginalized regions.

Arianna Legovini, Head of the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) group of the World Bank, gave the opening remarks. For the past 15 years, Legovini has worked to understand and develop the institutions required to engage researchers, operational staff and policymakers in improving the quality in the design and implementation of development projects. She is currently responsible for a research program including 170 impact evaluations in 60 countries across the globe.

Contact

If you have any questions, please reach out to Sam Fishman (sfishman@berkeley.edu) or the DIME Analytics team (dimeanalytics@worldbank.org).