New technologies afford—and may require—different ways of organizing society. We will consider historical episodes of technological change and our current era, following how shifts in technology can shift the economy and society. We will first use this course itself as a laboratory to explore the impacts of AI on education. We will then consider how AI may reshape other sectors, including governance and transportation; and the cross-cutting questions it raises about values, economic wellbeing, and purpose.

Student feedback:

• "Kudos to Prof B. for a fantastic semester full of exploration, spirited debate, adaptability to the news cycle and developments in AI, and pulling relevant bits of history at the right time... Often times ended class wishing we could go for another hour or two (or three)"
• "It’s wonderful—and rare—to have a professor who puts real effort into preparing content that fosters meaningful, thought-provoking discussion."
• "One of the best classes at SIPA hands-down."
• "One of the best classes I took at Columbia, enjoyed every moment of it."

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 work on real world problems. We use these problems as a backdrop to weigh the importance of causality, precision, and computational efficiency.

Course materials

Student feedback:

• "It was a delicacy every week."
• "This was a fascinating class, probably one of my favourite classes ever and certainly a top class I have taken at SIPA."
• "Best class experience I've had at Brown period... [The competitions] encouraged me to go and learn to improve myself, not to learn because I was told to."

Media coverage:

• Brown University: Highlighting Brown’s distinction in economics
• Innovations for Poverty Action Weekly Links (Chris Blattman's Blog)

Slides | Reading List