Stephan Dietrich is an assistant professor at UNU-MERIT.
I research the use of data in public policy making. I am interested in validating existing approaches to measure and utilize data for the design and implementation of policies. This includes, for example, verifying that automated decision-making systems are unbiased and fair, or that food security assessments based on national statistics are accurate. In my work, I also explore new approaches to measure phenomena relevant to the design or assessment of policies. This includes the use of subjective well-being data to measure the damages of global warming or the application of new social sensing tools for remote polling of preferences and opinions. I am particularly interested in applications in the fields of food prices and insurance mechanisms in food insecure regions, targeting of social policies, and taxation. As an academic lecturer, I teach courses at the Master's and PhD level, including introductory data science and an course on machine learning for public policy.