This paper considers both the considerable opportunities and the issues associated with using individual-level data and citizen-based analytics to inform social policy development and implementation. (From the Executive summary).
"This paper is the first in an occasional series arising from a research partnership between the Government of New Zealand and the European Commission, which is exploring the opportunities and challenges related to investing for better social outcomes arising from progress in data analytics and improved understandings of relevant human sciences – what has been termed by the NZ Government, “social investment”. During 2016 it was agreed that the Office of the Prime Minister of New Zealand’s Chief Science Advisor would lead a project jointly with the European Political Strategy Unit and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission to explore the challenges, opportunities and methodologies associated with the evolving use of big data in social policy domains. There are commonalities between this approach and work being carried out in the Joint Research Centre in the areas of fairness and resilience. Future papers in the series will explore both the conceptual and practical aspects of combining the growing understandings in biological, behavioural and social sciences with big data analytics to assist social policy development and evaluation." (From the document). Record #5487