Events

Launching Development Research in Practice

July 14, 2021

Virtual

DIME Analytics Data Handbook artwork typing on a laptop with a coffee cup

Technology has changed the process through which data are generated and has created massive amounts of real-time transaction-level data, with more data being generated in the last two years than in all human history combined… Yet most data are unused, especially in the public sector and in low-capacity environments. The scarcity we now face is of a different nature: we are limited by high-quality research skills and institutional capabilities for making sense of all the data and turning them into a resource for human progress… Building knowledge takes time, and evidence, especially in development economics, is scarce and difficult to generate.

— Arianna Legovini, preface to Development Research in Practice: The DIME Analytics Data Handbook

OVERVIEW
SPEAKERS

This event launches Development Research in Practice: The DIME Analytics Data Handbook. This new World Bank book provides a step-by-step guide to high-quality, reproducible data work over the full life cycle of an empirical research project. It shares the lessons, tools, and processes developed within the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) department, and compiles them into a single narrative of best practices for data work. The Handbook is directed to development researchers all over the world, to be read cover to cover or as a desk reference as needs arise. The central premise is that standardizing and simplifying data tasks improves research quality and enables more effective collaboration. The Handbook is available for download here.
After a brief presentation of the Handbook, panelists will discuss the role researchers play in transforming data into information that is valuable for development and the constraints to widespread adoption of modern and transparent data work.
Register for the accompanying Development Research in Practice course, which is free, fully virtual, and open to the public. Registration deadline June 30th.
Speakers

Arianna Legovini

Moderator
Head of Development Impact Evaluation (DIME)

Maria Ruth jones

Handbook overview
Survey Specialist and Team Lead, DIME Analytics

Marshall Burke

Panelist
Associate Professor, Department of Earth System Science, and Deputy Director, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University

Ruth Levine

Panelist
PhD, CEO, IDinsight

Edward Miguel

Penalist
Oxfam Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics and Faculty Director of the Center for Effective Global Action, University of California, Berkeley

Lars Vilhuber

Panelist
Data Editor, American Economic Association, and Executive Director, Labor Dynamics Institute, Cornell University