Evidence Network

Where does the “inflation rate” come from, anyway?

The recent controversy about Statistics Canada’s plans to collect a range of detailed financial data has, understandably, focused on questions of privacy.  But the role of a country’s national statistical agency has always been to balance the privacy concerns associated with collecting sensitive individual data with the many public goods produced from the statistical analysis […]

When pilot projects go off the rails

Research subjects caught between elected politicians and research ethics boards   Calls for evidence-informed policymaking have grown louder in recent decades. Advocates argue that the systematic use of the best available scientific evidence can help us avoid harm and achieve social policy goals while avoiding the deliberate manipulation of scientific evidence to achieve political ends. […]