Computational Policy Lab at Harvard Kennedy School

@comppolicylab.bsky.social

We're a team of researchers and data scientists who use computational approaches to address issues in criminal justice, education, voting rights, and beyond. https://policylab.hks.harvard.edu/

Have you ever forgotten an important date—like a birthday for a loved one? Now imagine if forgetting meant ending up in jail. Two years ago, we ran a randomized experiment that found that text message reminders reduce jail stays for missed court dates by over 20%.

A hand holding a smartphone displaying a court date reminder on screen.Bild

NEW in Management Science! My coauthors and I came up with a new consequentialist approach to designing equitable algorithms. Instead of imposing fairness criteria on an algorithm (like equal false negative rates), we aim for good outcomes. More in the 🧵 below! (1/)

A screenshot of the first page of our paper, Learning to Be Fair, showing the title and abstract.

The use of race in clinical risk models is heavily debated. While race-aware models can be more accurate, some are concerned about reinforcing racialized views of medicine. In our paper, we offer a new perspective on this debate. 🧵👇https://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M23-3166

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