Cornell Summer Program - Big Data for Big Policy Problems

Roger Starr once said, "Money has the most egalitarian force in society. It confers power on whoever holds it." I struggle to comprehend this as money has never been equally distributed. Rather, it has been the inherent cause of social disparities, as people who are born into poverty are often trapped in a cycle for life, and so are their children. These disparities are reinforced over generations, and they hinder one from attaining the necessary resources and opportunities for economic stability. As much as these questions have been bothering scholars and thinkers for centuries, their enormity has intimidated my naive heart.

Devising 4 lab projects analyzing the currently occurring policy issues in America made me realize that understanding the flow of money is understanding power dynamics. Especially when conducting a research analysis about the implications of COVID-19 on students in America, I was stunned to see how to theories that I have learned from textbooks were applied in reality. According to the theory, all policies were intended to address economic issues and bring out positive aspects to the economy. However, after weighing the short and long-term implications of policies during my research, I realized that some policies may not be very effective despite the plausibility of theories.

Nevertheless, I still believe that theories are important in economics as they give an insight into how to influence or solve a specific economic phenomenon. Their mismatch with reality shed light on theoretical flaws for economics to excogitate more accurate explanations of the current circumstances.

Realizing that economic theories do not always fully reflect or forecast the reality due to uncontrollable factors such as infectious diseases and natural disasters, I learned that one's resilience to overcome an unforeseen event empowers us to confront crises creatively. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented level of uncertainty and poverty, it bombarded real-life problems of inequalities to an aspiring economist like myself. As Amartya Sen preaches, poverty is not limited to deprivation of financial resources, but also includes hindrance from realizing one's own capabilities and functionings.

Carrying out this project was such a valuable experience for me, as I got to analyze the data that I collected to figure out the efficiency of policies. From the main problem of economic policies that I've discovered throughout this project, I am looking forward to learning how to foster more sustainable economic growth, and therefore contributing to the international society and playing a role in leading the world to the prosperity of humankind.