Big Data for Socioeconomic Issues

Singapore University of Social Sciences

Big Data for Socioeconomic Issues (BUS373)

Synopsis

BUS373 shows how “big data” can be used to understand some of the key social and economic problems in society. It covers topics, such as social mobility, inequality, life satisfaction, energy, environment, population ageing and technological innovations, etc. Students do not need prior knowledge in these selected topics, but a basic understanding of statistics will facilitate the learning of various methodologies used in the data analysis. This course will provide students with the analytical skills to identify social and economic issues, and evaluate and address them, as well as build their understanding of the practical use of “big data” in the context of social sciences.

Level: 3
Credit Units: 5
Presentation Pattern: Every January

Topics

Social mobility and its measures using population survey data
Factors affecting social mobility using regression discontinuity design
Income inequality and its measures using labour force survey data
Income gap decomposition using the Oaxaca-Blinder methodology
Happiness and life satisfaction studies and its impact using World Value Survey
Factors associated with happiness and life satisfaction using regression analysis
Energy-growth nexus studies using the Penn World Table
Granger causal analysis of the relationship between energy and economic growth
Environment and economic development using World Bank data
Population ageing and global ageing data
Population ageing trend analysis using population pyramids
Artificial intelligence and its impact on the labour market using O*NET

Learning Outcome

Examine social mobility issues using quantitative data
Discuss factors that are associated with income inequality
Assess factors associated with happiness and life satisfaction using World Value Survey
Appraise the relationship between energy, environment and economic development using data from the World Bank
Employ existing survey data to critique policies addressing the issue of population ageing
Show an understanding of both positive and negative effects of technological innovations
Apply big data to evaluate current social and economic issues
Design a research study to assess determinants of the social and economic issues