Better Data and Measurement for Local Public Policy Decisions

Local officials make decisions daily on policies, strategies and programs that affect the quality of life of their residents.  We live in a data driven world where “open data” has become an institutionalized mantra, especially in government at all levels.  Yet, the increased availability of these data sets does not presage their usefulness for application to the practical problems that the locals face. Different concepts, methods of collection, units of analysis, time periods, disclosure avoidance methods, and level of accessibility affect the ability of local decision makers to put the data to work.  After all, the power of these data sets lies not in their singular use, but in their integration in the interest of problem solving. What is needed is a strategy for curation to successfully integrate data to form products that can inform local problems – the 21st Century Curated Data Enterprise (CDE).

The CDE concept directly addresses changing demographic, economic and social conditions through exploiting multiple data sources across sample surveys, censuses, and administrative and private-sector data, to produce more robust, granular, timelier, and comprehensive data products. This will allow addressing time-sensitive questions and require the curation of associated data and processes. For example, managing the impact of economic shifts and crises due to pandemics, wildfires, hurricanes, on vulnerable populations requires real-time and geographically detailed data to address stakeholder questions. This presentation uses selected Use Cases to explain how the CDE framework can be used to discover and integrate data in new ways. While the CDE is being adopted by the U.S. Census Bureau, this framework has worldwide applicability and, indeed, is part-and-parcel of efforts internationally, coordinated by the United Nations, to develop measures to track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Salvo J. Better Data and Measurement for Local Public Policy Decisions. Data Science for the Public Good Symposium, Biocomplexity Institute, University of Virginia. 2022 August; Arlington, VA, United States.