The effective design, implementation and evaluation of public policies rely on accurate socioeconomic data. It would be impossible, for instance, to implement a poverty alleviation program without knowing who the relevant target populations are, where they live, and their economic status. As the United Nations Population Fund puts it, “without accurate data, those most in need remain invisible.”Traditionally, governments have relied on national censuses to gather this critical data. Data from these country-wide surveys tend to be fairly accurate but … Continue reading Could Phone Data Reveal a Person’s Wealth?