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Dean Karlan, CEPR Research Fellow, has been appointed Chief Economist at USAID, where he will provide expert advice on economic policy and analysis. He will also support USAID bureaus and missions to integrate the latest in behavioural insights and experimental design into their work, as well as bolstering USAID’s partnerships throughout the field.
Dean Karlan is a Research Fellow in CEPR's Development Economics programme. He has contributed extensively to CEPR's research output; a selection of his Discussion Papers can be found here.
Previously he was the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is also Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a nonprofit organisation that brings researchers and decision-makers together to empirically test development projects. In 2007, he received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honour bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
Speaking at his swearing-in ceremony, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said: "Dean will help us to challenge our assumptions about what works, and push us to improve how we see our impact and how we seek to achieve it, helping us deliver progress beyond simply our programs. And at every turn, he’ll make sure to ground our work in something 'More than Good Intentions,' the title of one of his most noteworthy books."
Dean said: "We have to be a leader in the development community, empowering local organizations through our localization agenda, empowering other donors, large and small, by leading through example, how to use evidence to make the world a better place, that comes through transparency and sharing."
You can read the full speech from Dean's swearing-in ceremony here.
