data|in|space
About
data|in|space
data|in|space gives social scientists easy access to geospatial and non-traditional data sets and are directly useable in standard statistical software packages.
It is also a platform for researchers to publish tools (i.e. code, scripts) and learning materials and get credit for their work.
The aim is to enhance transparency and replicability, and eventually enable social scientists to create their own data sets in pursuit of their inquiries.
Team
Paul Raschky – Founder
Paul is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Monash Business School. He completed his PhD in 2008 at the University of Innsbruck Austria and joined Monash University in 2009 after a research visit at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His research interests are in the fields of political economy, environmental economics, insurance economics and development economics with a focus on natural hazards. His research has been published, among others, in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and the European Economic Review.
Shaun Astbury – GIS Developer
Shaun Astbury is a British GIS developer and spatial analyst, with an academic background in ecology and environmental science. He has worked with GIS for over ten years, previously working within environmental consultancies in the UK, and volunteering with wildlife conservation programmes in Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. He now works as a freelance GIS professional in Canada, and specialises in developing tools for geoprocessing and spatial analysis using open source libraries in programming languages like Python and R.
Contributors
Ashani Amarasinghe
Ashani is a PhD candidate in Economics at Monash University. Her primary research interests are political economy, development economics and economic shock treatment. Her PhD thesis focuses on using novel geocoded data at very fine spatial and temporal resolutions to explain trends in economic phenomena. Ashani completed her honours degree in Economics at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She worked for four years as an investment/finance specialist and as a lecturer at University of Colombo, before starting her PhD journey.
Roland Hodler
Roland Hodler is Professor of Economics at the University of St.Gallen, External Research Associate at the Oxford Centre for Analysis of Resource Rich Economies (OxCarre), and Research Fellow at CEPR and CESifo. After having received his PhD in Economics from the University of Bern in 2004, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University. He then became Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and later Professor at the University of Lucerne. His main research interests are in political economics and development economics. Among others, he is interested in the economic, social and political effects of ethnic divisions, natural resources, and foreign aid. His research has been published in academic journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the European Economic Review, the Journal of Development Economics, and the Journal of Public Economics, and has been covered by media outlets such as the Economist, Financial Times, and Washington Post.
Miethy Zaman
Miethy completed her undergraduate studies at North South University, Bangladesh and graduate studies at University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She is currently doing her PhD in Economics at Monash University, Australia. Prior to moving to Australia, Miethy worked as a research assistant in Policy Research Institute, Bangladesh and as a lecturer in North South University, Bangladesh. Her PhD thesis involves using data science and machine learning approach to derive socioeconomic information from alternative data sources like satellite images and Open Street Map.