Welcome to the first installment of Dewey’s monthly research roundup where we share a few recently published research papers that feature data available from Dewey partners.
We saw a ton of interesting research published by members of our community this past March. Check out these three articles featuring data from Dewey partners Revelio Labs and SafeGraph:
Healthy Cities, A comprehensive dataset for environmental determinants of health in England cities
Authored by: Zhenyu Han (Tsinghua University), Tong Xia (Cambridge University), Yanxin Xi (University of Helsinki), & Yong Li (Tsinghua University)
Published in: Nature
This paper describes how this group of researchers leveraged a variety of data inputs, including SafeGraph’s Places dataset, to develop a new, fine-grained, and multi-sourced dataset for environmental determinants of health across English cities. Covering physical health, mental health, and life expectancy, the resulting dataset includes environmental determinants from four perspectives: basic statistics, behavioral environment, built environment, and natural environment. The data has been extracted and integrated from various sources into two spatial scales: middle layer super output area (MSOA) and city level, using big data processing and deep learning. The dataset is intended to be used for future studies by public health researchers and urban designers to identify environmental determinants of health and design a healthy and sustainable city.
Going digital: implications for firm value and performance
Authored by: Wilbur Chen (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School) & Suraj Srinivasan (Harvard Business School)
Published in: Review of Accounting Studies
This study uses data from Revelio Labs to examine the impact of digital activities on firm value and performance for non-technology companies. Digital activities are measured based on the disclosure of digital words in the business description section of 10-Ks. Results show that firms with higher digital activities have a market-to-book ratio 8% to 26% higher than industry peers. The study also finds that portfolios formed based on digital activity disclosure also earn higher returns. However, there is only weak evidence of positive improvements in fundamental performance in the short term; the study suggests that non-technology companies engaging in digital activities can create value for investors, but it may take time to see improvements in fundamental performance.
Neighborhood Racial and Economic Composition Predicts Incidence of Various Emergency Service Responses
Authored by: Karl Vachuska (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Published in: Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
This article discusses how sociological research has primarily focused on neighborhood inequality in crime and violence, neglecting other types of adverse incidents that require emergency services responses. The author uses a unique dataset from over 600 first-responder agencies across the US to examine neighborhood inequalities in prevalence for incidents such as medical emergencies, fires, traffic collisions, gas leaks, carbon monoxide leaks, and hazardous incidents. SafeGraph Patterns data is used to indegree disadvantage, or the average level of neighborhood disadvantage associated with nonresident visitors to a neighborhood.The results show that socioeconomic disparities exist for the outcomes of multiple types of emergency responses, including medical emergencies, fires, and traffic collisions.
Looking to catch up on even more innovative research? Browse through our entire research repository here, and be sure to visit our on-demand video library of research seminars.