Topic: Data Analytics

LA Times homepage as seen on a computer desktop monitor Research Brief / Advertising

Why the Online Ad World Abandoned Soft-Floor Auctions

Complexity and a failure to boost platform revenue were culprits

Hands of businesswoman on computer laptop on sofa in home. with a search bar overlaid on the image. Research Brief / Finance

Using Google Trends To Detect Revenue Misreporting

It’s public and free and could help auditors

A graph illustration showing the equilibrium of labor supply and labor demand Primer / Minimum Wage

Through the Minimum Wage Looking Glass: Economic Consensus Unrealized

Researchers struggle with faulty study designs, flyspecking each other’s work, re-arguing decades of debate about jobs and income

A flow chart overlaid on programming language. Research Brief / Technology

The Trade-Off Between Fairness and Accuracy in Algorithm Design

What happens when data is excluded?

Detail of a 19-century painting depicting the Battle of Kulikovo (1380 CE). Research Brief / Cultural History

Testing 17 Theories on the Development of Complex Civilizations

Large-scale data project produces stark conclusion: military technology + agricultural productivity caused the takeoff

A laptop with Netflix Research Brief / E-commerce

Streaming Choices: Do We Follow the Big Crowd or Our Friends?

The ubiquitous community-wide customer rating is the biggest pull in helping us pick a movie or show

Students walking on a path on campus Research Brief / Diversity

Sizing Up the Measurable Good of Affirmative Action

An economic model sets aside who loses and focuses on efficiency and overall growth

Suburban neighborhood Research Brief / Investing

Single-Family Rentals: What Drives Investor Return?

A unique data set provides fresh insights for the growing institutional investor market

Illustration of a man reaching for cherries on top of a pile of math symbols Feature / Productivity

Picked All the Low-Hanging Fruit? Finding Opportunity in Mathematical Models

After management does its best, new analytical approaches take effectiveness up another notch

Censored pricing at a store - Sale Price Research Brief / Pricing

Opaque Pricing: How Sellers Can Gather Data and Boost Revenue

Websites peddle unnamed hotels and even cities; would you pay to omit one from the list?

Research Brief / Data Analytics

Old Ways of Thinking Cause Managers to Disregard Analytics

Highlighting the right data and making it relevant can help overcome resistance

Illustration of a calendar with 15th circled Research Brief / Behavioral Decision Making

Motivation to Begin or an Excuse to Slack Off?

Fresh-start dates can serve as either — it’s a two-way nudge

City street Research Brief / Health Care

Maximizing Life Saving through Better Placement of Defibrillators

Just putting one where the last cardiac arrest occurred isn’t optimal — more calculations to get to fewer steps

A screen grab of the Volunteer Match website that reads "How do I?' on an orange and white background. Research Brief / Technology

Matching Algorithms Work Fine — Until Bypassed By External Links

How to rebalance supply and demand amid today’s chaotic internet traffic

Hospital emergency room Research Brief / Health Care

Machine Learning Can Help Reduce Post-Surgical Hospital Readmissions

A model outperformed simpler statistical approaches in predicting which patients would encounter trouble

Chalk illustration of a graph Research Brief / Data Analytics

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics — and Data Visualization

How we interpret time-series data is dependent on the designer’s chosen format