ECON-A3000 - Principles of Empirical Analysis, Lecture, 10.1.2022-21.2.2022
This course space end date is set to 21.02.2022 Search Courses: ECON-A3000
Pre-class exercise 1
Charts of the Future
Pre-Class Exercise 1
We will start the course with a lecture on data collection. The idea is to give you a bunch of examples on the power of simply collecting data and presenting it in an informative manner – and a few examples about how things can go terribly wrong when the process becomes corrupted.
In order to facilitate discussion, I ask you to familiarize yourself with the COMPSTAT system that revolutionized policing in New York City in the 1990s. Specifically, you should listen the Reply All podcast “#127 The Crime Machine, Part I” before our first lecture. If you’re in a hurry, you can listen only the 20 minutes starting from 17:40.
Based on the podcast, please submit a short summary through MyCourses that answers the following questions:
- How were the original “Charts of the Future” put together? How did they change the operations of the NYPD transit police?
- How was this original idea scaled up in the NYPD when Jack Maple was made the Deputy Police Commissioner in 1994? How was the data used?
- What kind of risks you think the creation of COMSTAT created? Why?
We will discuss the content of part II of the Crime Machine podcast in the lecture and you do not need to prepare for that. However, if you find the podcast as captivating as I do, you can, of course, listen whole thing before the lecture.
Please note that the idea is just to give structure for your preparation, so please do not spend too much time in polishing your summaries. Evaluation will be on pass/fail basis. You can submit your summary through MyCourses "Assignments" section, and there is a hard deadline 15 minutes before the start of the class.
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Link to the podcast (including transcript): https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2hx34. You can also listen it using whatever podcast app you’re accustomed to.