The Politics of Data

Abstract

The politics of data operates not only in the misuse of numbers but also in the categories through which information is organised and the analytical frameworks through which it is interpreted. Even when measured “correctly”—or at least seemingly well—data categories are not neutral. Each category carries normative judgments and opens up debates about what it captures and what it excludes. Recent approaches to empirics in economics, which are institutionally incentivised, reshape the public function of data in developing economies.