Week 10: Welfare Economics and Policy Evaluation
DSAN 5450: Data Ethics and Policy
Spring 2026, Georgetown University
Schedule
| Start | End | Topic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 3:30pm | 5:00pm | Policy Evaluation → |
| Break! | 5:00pm | 5:10pm | |
| 5:10pm | 6:00pm | Group Brainstorming for Final Projects 🧠 |
\[ \DeclareMathOperator*{\argmax}{argmax} \DeclareMathOperator*{\argmin}{argmin} \newcommand{\bigexp}[1]{\exp\mkern-4mu\left[ #1 \right]} \newcommand{\bigexpect}[1]{\mathbb{E}\mkern-4mu \left[ #1 \right]} \newcommand{\definedas}{\overset{\small\text{def}}{=}} \newcommand{\definedalign}{\overset{\phantom{\text{defn}}}{=}} \newcommand{\eqeventual}{\overset{\text{eventually}}{=}} \newcommand{\Err}{\text{Err}} \newcommand{\expect}[1]{\mathbb{E}[#1]} \newcommand{\expectsq}[1]{\mathbb{E}^2[#1]} \newcommand{\fw}[1]{\texttt{#1}} \newcommand{\given}{\mid} \newcommand{\green}[1]{\color{green}{#1}} \newcommand{\heads}{\outcome{heads}} \newcommand{\iid}{\overset{\text{\small{iid}}}{\sim}} \newcommand{\lik}{\mathcal{L}} \newcommand{\loglik}{\ell} \DeclareMathOperator*{\maximize}{maximize} \DeclareMathOperator*{\minimize}{minimize} \newcommand{\mle}{\textsf{ML}} \newcommand{\nimplies}{\;\not\!\!\!\!\implies} \newcommand{\orange}[1]{\color{orange}{#1}} \newcommand{\outcome}[1]{\textsf{#1}} \newcommand{\param}[1]{{\color{purple} #1}} \newcommand{\pgsamplespace}{\{\green{1},\green{2},\green{3},\purp{4},\purp{5},\purp{6}\}} \newcommand{\pedge}[2]{\require{enclose}\enclose{circle}{~{#1}~} \rightarrow \; \enclose{circle}{\kern.01em {#2}~\kern.01em}} \newcommand{\pnode}[1]{\require{enclose}\enclose{circle}{\kern.1em {#1} \kern.1em}} \newcommand{\ponode}[1]{\require{enclose}\enclose{box}[background=lightgray]{{#1}}} \newcommand{\pnodesp}[1]{\require{enclose}\enclose{circle}{~{#1}~}} \newcommand{\purp}[1]{\color{purple}{#1}} \newcommand{\sign}{\text{Sign}} \newcommand{\spacecap}{\; \cap \;} \newcommand{\spacewedge}{\; \wedge \;} \newcommand{\tails}{\outcome{tails}} \newcommand{\Var}[1]{\text{Var}[#1]} \newcommand{\bigVar}[1]{\text{Var}\mkern-4mu \left[ #1 \right]} \]
The “Goal” of Policymaking!
| \(B\) | ||||||
| Fish 6h | Fish 8h | |||||
| \(A\) | Fish 6h | \(1, \,\) | \(1\) | \(0,\) | \(1.2\) | |
| Fish 8h | \(1.2, \,\) | \(0\) | \(0.4,\) | \(0.4\) | ||
🔫 🏆
Hard Mode
| \(B\) | |||
| Early | Late | ||
| \(A\) | Early | \(4, 4\) | \(0, 3\) |
| Late | \(3, 0\) | \(2, 2\) | |
| \(B\) | |||
| Corn | Taro | ||
| \(A\) | Corn | \(2, 4\) | \(4, 3\) |
| Taro | \(5, 5\) | \(3, 2\) | |
Fishers’ Dilemma 😫 \(\prec\) Assurance Game 🤨 \(\prec\) Invisible Hand Game 🥳
Group Brainstorming Time
| Cluster 1 The “Data-Ethical Toolkit” (Christy) |
Cluster 2 Fair Machine Learning (Ellie) |
| Cluster 3 Privacy x Policy Evaluation (Jeff) |