Who Are We?
Fair Access
We use advanced research tools to determine optimal policies on Fair Access at the global level.
Sustainable Tech
We propose human-centered technologies for sustainable change that also address development challenges.
Society
We conduct socially aware research into digitization and its impacts on a globalized society.
FASTLab. Global Institute
We are a global academy shaping policy on access and fairness issues through the tools of Economics and big data.
Our Team
Giacomo De Giorgi
Giacomo is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economics and Econometrics at the GSEM-University of Geneva. He conducts research on topics related to Fair Access to insurance, credit, mobility, education, health, and housing using large datasets and randomized trials. He also studies entrepreneurship and technological innovation.
He has held faculty positions at Stanford, Columbia, BGSE, and was a senior economist at the NY-Fed. He holds a PhD from the University College London.
Matthew Harding
Matthew is a Professor of Economics and Statistics and Director of the Deep Data Lab at the University of California-Irvine. He is an Econometrician who develops machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to answer big data questions related to individual consumption and investment decisions in areas such as health, energy, and finance.
He held faculty positions at Stanford University, Georgetown University and Duke University. He consults for major companies. He holds a PhD from MIT and an M.Phil. from Oxford University.
Recent and Ongoing Projects
Different groups in society have unequal access to resources during their entire live. Differential access to health, education, or credit drive very different trajectories over the life-cycle.
Access to the credit market allows the transfer of resources across time. Individuals can invest in education, households can purchase a home, and be shielded from health shocks. What if some have more access than others?
This area focuses on topics related to environmental justice, that is the fair treatment and access of all people to clean water and air. We work on projects involving the use of satellite data and the utilization of GIS systems such as the Google Earth API to visualize spatial relationships using machine learning and AI.
This area focuses on the inequality across socio-demographics of accessing healthy and nutritious foods. We are interested in the economic factors that drive pricing decisions across regions and the impact of policies on the food retail environment.
This area focuses on the analysis of inequalities in healthcare provision from hospital admissions to the availability of primary care. Of particular interest is the analysis of the current COVID-19 crisis. Projects utilize Big Data from large administrative datasets such as patient data.
