The Secret Science of Formulas

Abstract

This chapter reveals how choices and decisions concerning the analytics applied to data shapes outcomes, through an account of a working session between academics and a government minister to devise and implement an 'objective' method for allocating government funding. The nub of the problem was the Minister had a very particular outcome in mind. He wanted the investment from his new scheme to be spread across as many constituencies as possible, and certainly the ones that traditionally voted for his party or those that might swing away from the government. However, he did not want to be seen to allocate the funding on political grounds, nor run the scheme on a competitive basis. Instead, he wanted to be able to say that the monies had been apportioned using a statistical formula that assessed need objectively. Creating a formula for producing a map that pleased the Minister proved to be trickier than anticipated. In part, this was because he had his own ideas about which variables were good indicators of relative deprivation and need.