How Not to Be Bamboozled by Local Economic Studies: Online, Feb. 8-9

Want to know how to check the job-creation numbers that experts toss around at City Council debates surrounding tax breaks to sports teams, new factories and tourism? How about the likely economic impact of a major company closing or moving away?

Are you confused about how your city can be on top of “Places Rated” one year and the bottom the next? Or how to check the assumptions behind those rosy forecasts pushed by local business interests?

Photo by Flickr user Jordan MacDonald

From “Places Rated” to stadium subsidies, local leaders use dueling economic forecasts and studies to defend spending taxpayer money on favored projects and talk up the local economy. Reporters often know that these studies can be manipulated to promote many different points of view but are often ill equipped to troubleshoot the work.

This free Webinar will give you the tools and techniques you need to read economic studies with a critical eye. In just one hour on each of two days, you’ll learn the sources used by economists, how they can pump or diminish the results, and rules of thumb you can use on the fly to help you ask better questions.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Key questions to ask sources about their studies
• How to spot pumped-up estimates
• Sources to do your own analysis instead

AGENDA

Day 1 be an hourlong discussion of two case studies. After Day 1, attendees will be given a third scenario, which will form the basis of the discussion and instruction during the hourlong session on Day 2. Both days will be based on case studies, with attendees given a range of examples and encouraged to pick out strengths and weaknesses.

Sarah Cohen

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Sarah Cohen joined Duke University as its Knight journalism chair in 2009 after 15 years as a reporter and editor, primarily with investigative teams at The Washington Post. She has shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Goldsmith Prize and other national awards.

Prior to the Post, Cohen covered  local economics for the St. Petersburg Times and The Tampa Tribune, building on more than a decade of experience as an economist in Washington. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was elected to the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors in 2010.

FIRST-TIME ATTENDEES

Check out our Technology Help Page for connectivity requirements, helpful tips and an instructional video on how to access Reynolds Center Webinars.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This free Webinar is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. If you have any questions about the Webinar or the center, please email Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.