Joshua Blumenstock

Applications in Social Sciences

Joshua Blumenstock’s research focuses on using large-scale data to understand social and economic behavior. He is particularly concerned with developing new quantitative and computational methods for understanding the role of technology in the lives of individuals in developing and low-income countries. Recent projects use terabytes of network data to understand the diffusion of mobile technologies (Pakistan and Mongolia), the welfare impacts of Mobile Money (Rwanda and Uganda), and the role of technological innovation in reducing corruption and violence (Afghanistan).

Blumenstock is a former assistant professor at the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle, and is currently an assistant professor at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as the director of the Data-Intensive Development Lab. He has received fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, and the Harvard Institutes of Medicine, and was a post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Economics at Yale University. Joshua holds a Ph.D in Information Management and a M.A. in Economics from U.C. Berkeley, and Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Computer Science from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.