DDD Success Story: Two NBER Economists

Two Harvard economists needed crucial data for their research studies. Sarah Reber, studying the impact of de-segregation on education for her dissertation, was able to track down printed copies of tax data by county. Amy Finkelstein, researching innovation in hospitals, had hundreds of pages of data on hospitals going back to the 1950s. But neither of them had a cost-effective way to convert these pages into data they could analyze using SSPS number-crunching software.

After trying to organize their hard-working, but busy, undergraduate research assistants to enter the data, Amy and Sarah realized they needed help in turning around the data accurately and on-time. They both turned to Digital Divide Data for help.

DDD worked with these two National Bureau of Economic Research affiliated economists to successfully convert their data and ease their research burden. Here’s how it worked:

• Research assistants in Cambridge, MA scanned the pages (since much of the data was on loan from other libraries).
• Using a simple Windows folder shortcut on their desktop, they dropped the images onto DDD’s server (or Fedexed CDs to Phnom Penh).
• As well, they provided Excel templates and instructions for the proper formatting of the data (since the format often changed from decade to decade).
• DDD’s office in Phnom Penh downloaded the images from the server, organized them into batches, trained employees and started the data entry.
• After double-keying the data and checking it through a quality assurance process customized for the job, DDD’s office uploaded the text output files to the server.
• Research assistants downloaded the data, checked it and imported it into the data analysis software.
• The economists, Amy and Sarah, went to work on their real jobs, analyzing the data and looking for economic insights.

The two satisfied clients have already recommended DDD to several of their academic colleagues. “DDD became an essential partner in my data collection process. I was able to trust them to communicate clearly, help solve problems and come through with accurate output on deadline. It is my pleasure to recommend them to other academics,” said Sarah Reber.

For more information contact Jeremy Hockenstein ( Jeremy@digitaldividedata.com ) or Matthew Utterback ( matt@digitaldividedata.com ).