CAREER: Information, Algorithms, and Learning

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds research on topics at the intersection of economic theory and computer science. This project is motivated by the growing use of machine learning algorithms to guide decisions such as who should receive bail or receive a loan. This project will contribute towards a better understanding of the opportunities and the dangers of such algorithmic approaches. The principal investigator (PI) plans to work in two steps. First, the PI will theoretically model the welfare implications of algorithmic predictions, focusing on tradeoffs between goals such as the “fairness” of the algorithm (i.e., whether the algorithm’s errors are disproportionately borne by one social group over another) and the accuracy of the algorithm. Second, the PI will propose new methods for understanding how predictions made by black box methods differ from those made by economic models, focusing in particular on how well these predictions generalize to new unseen domains. This research will develop new results in economic theory and new methodologies for the interpretation of economic data. The award also funds new curriculum development for a university major combining Economics and Computer Science. The overall project has three components. The first project provides a conceptual framework for algorithmic decision-making and a characterization of how the “fairness-accuracy” Pareto frontier depends on the inputs to the algorithm. The second project proposes new measures for evaluating economic models, including a measure for the restrictiveness of the economic model and a measure for the portability of the economic model. The final project proposes a model of information flow on social media platforms when the social norms that govern acceptable expression are in flux. This project focuses on characterizing when and how expressed views systematically differ from the true distribution of opinions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.