A project from a team led by Robert Krueger at Worcester Polytechnic Institute seeks to analyze a unique large dataset, The Poverty Stoplight (PSL), to identify and quantify economic priorities from the perspective of families living in poverty, aiming to help solve these problems. Using machine learning (ML), the project team will look at the PSL data to determine economic opportunities from the viewpoint of those who would benefit from the allocation of resources. 

The research objectives are: 

-To examine relationships between demographic factors and poverty;

-To use machine learning to determine clusters of conditions that present economic opportunity;

-To apply the methods and algorithms developed from this modeling to other data sets such as proxy means tests;

-To compare the ML findings with on-the-ground conditions in three countries: Paraguay, the US, and Kenya.

PSL was developed and deployed by Paraguayan social entrepreneur and celebrated economist Martín Burt. Since its beginning, the PSL has amassed data from over 200,000 families in 50 different countries. The PSL community, composed of government agencies, private companies and nonprofits, collects data directly from families and works with these families to design interventions. Families, using a phone, tablet or computer, complete a self-assessment questionnaire using color-coded indicators to identify the areas of their lives they most wish were improved.

Currently, the PSL methodology assists people visualize their subjective forms of poverty: they define their conditions and what actions might support self-improvement. With this project, the team aims to help support people in creating their own economic opportunity through local markets. They hope the project results will transform the PSL from showing indicators for areas of need, to identifying areas of opportunity that promote freedom and wellbeing.