Daniel Han

Daniel is an HCI PhD Summer Fieldwork Fellow, and second-year Ph.D. student in Economics at Boston University. His research interests are in Development Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Labor Economics. He is particularly interested in how misinformation affects the take-up of social programs in developing countries. In other ongoing work, he examines the causes and consequences of educational migration.

Previously, Daniel was a Senior Research Specialist at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nairobi, Kenya, and a Research Associate at INSEAD’s Singapore campus. He obtained his Master of Science in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and his Bachelor of Science in Economics (summa cum laude) from Singapore Management University.

For his HCI PhD Summer Fieldwork Fellowship, Daniel will implement a novel study in rural Western Kenya, a prominent context to analyze development economics and the site of many NGO-run programs. His experiment tests two strategies for debunking misinformation about social programs: (1) correcting individuals’ beliefs about the program, and (2) correcting individuals’ perceptions of what others in their community believe about the program. Daniels research therefore sheds light on whether interventions targeting each belief channel can effectively address misinformation and improve program take-up.