In an increasingly interconnected world, leaders and problem-solvers must work across fields to address challenges that span disciplines. Yale is answering this call, connecting corporate, government, and community leaders, and providing evidence grounded in data about how best to address the greatest issues of our time.
On April 30th, more than one hundred members of the Yale community gathered at the Maddox-Muse Center at Bass Performance Hall for the latest installment in the For Humanity Illuminated event series, titled Business, Law, and Social Enterprise: At the Nexus of Excellence and Impact. The evening featured four Yale experts who discussed how the university is using research to enable social enterprise across business, law, and society.
Leveraging Data for Good
At Yale’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy, researchers produce evidence-based insights to inform policy. David Wilkinson ’06 JD, the center’s executive director, shared advancements on projects funded by the center in the areas of childcare, electric vehicles, and the relationship between social media and mental health.
“Recent advances in data and analytics are transforming social science and creating new opportunities for impact,” Wilkinson said. “By operating at the frontiers of data and evidence, we are answering questions that policymakers can’t. We’re helping solve problems that government, and even business, would not solve on their own, and we’re building a new generation of leaders to do so.”
Laura Arnold ’00 JD, founder and co-chair of Arnold Ventures, discussed the value proposition of such data-informed policymaking. A lawyer now working in philanthropy, Arnold shared her core belief in testing solutions to systemic societal disfunction.
“We won’t improve the world if we don’t focus on what works,” Arnold said, citing policies aiming to decrease discrimination or improve access to public services that sounded great in theory, but did not result in empirical success. “These programs were spearheaded by earnest, good-hearted people who want to help those in need. But they didn’t work. And it’s important to know that before we spend valuable government resources, and more importantly, before we waste valuable time.”
Focusing On What Works
Rohini Pande, the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics, has applied that same lens to programs aiming to reduce global poverty. Her research found that microfinance loan programs that required payback within a matter of weeks put too much pressure on business owners, leading them to worse, not better, financial situations.
Her randomized trial of a new program that offered grace periods and repayment flexibility found a significant increase in profits and sustainable growth.
“This small design adjustment leads to higher profits and more sustainable growth,” Pande said. “It wasn’t that microfinance doesn’t work. It’s just that the alpha version wasn’t designed right.”
Kate Cooney, founder and director of the Inclusive Econ¬omic Development Lab at Yale School of Management, showcased how to translate knowledge into local action.
“For every San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston, there is Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore struggling to reinvent itself; and the differences between them seemed to be growing starker,” Cooney said. “Even as cities put together ‘winning’ strategies to spur economic growth, revitalizing central business districts can be surrounded by stubbornly consistent patterns of concentrated poverty.”
Cooney’s work aims to bring together practitioners, public officials, academics, students, and engaged residents to learn about the best evidence-based strategies for inclusive economic development.
For an Interdisciplinary Education
To close the program, Yale President Peter Salovey ’86 PhD shared examples of how multidisciplinary learning fuels innovation across Yale’s campus, from an initiative harnessing the power of AI to help caregivers access benefits to a project bridging advanced analytics and persuasion science to reimagine political campaigns.
“Across campus, we are preparing students to be flexible thinkers who can draw from the strength of Yale’s law school, the depth of our humanities departments, the expertise of our social scientists, and the innovation of our engineers and natural scientists,” Salovey said. “At Yale we don’t just want to disrupt things—we want to make things better.”
Next: Seattle
For Humanity Illuminated travels to Seattle, WA on June 14, 2024. Visit the For Humanity Illuminated page to stay up to date on upcoming events and watch recordings of past programs.