Homework assignment for ECON 1000 course at Brown University which analyzed upward mobility in Bethesda, MD, using data from Opportunity Atlas
This course will show how "big data" can be used to understand and address some of the most important social and economic problems of our time. The course will give students an introduction to frontier research and policy applications in economics and social science in a non-technical manner that does not require prior coursework in economics or statistics, making it suitable both for students exploring economics for the first time, as well as those with more experience. Topics include equality of opportunity, education, racial disparities, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care, climate change, criminal justice, and tax policy (https://www.coursicle.com/brown/courses/ECON/1000/).
The Opportunity Atlas was publicly released in 2018 and has since become a widely used tool among policymakers, journalists, and researchers. Developed by economists at Harvard and the U.S. Census Bureau, the Atlas maps the outcomes of children born between 1978 and 1983 — such as income, college attendance, and incarceration — based on where they grew up.
Using this data, we were tracing the long-term impact of neighborhood environments on economic mobility and inequality in the United States.
The goal of this homework assignment was to use the Opportunity Atlas dataset and mapping tool to investigate the geography of opportunity in a community of personal or academic interest. This included:
- Selecting a specific location (e.g. hometown or community of interest)
- Exploring metrics such as income, incarceration rates, and upward mobility
- Identifying patterns across racial, economic, and geographic lines