EA - Dean Karlan is now Chief Economist of USAID by Henry Howard

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Dean Karlan is now Chief Economist of USAID, published by Henry Howard on January 24, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.In November 2022, the United Stated Agency for International Development appointed Professor Dean Karlan as their Chief Economist. Dean Karlan is a development economist who founded Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) in 2002 and has been its president since. He's also on the Executive Committee of MIT's Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).IPA and J-PAL have been responsible for a lot of the research that underpins GiveWell's charity recommendations (GiveWell has a 2011 overview of IPA's contributions here). Their work includes:Evidence for the effectiveness of free vs. priced bednetsOngoing work on unconditional cash transfersEvidence for positive effects from deworming (a 2019 Cochrane review suggests otherwise)Work suggesting that microfinance isn't that greatEvidence for the effectiveness of chlorine dispensersWork on incentives for immunisationThis is among hundreds of other policy/intervention evaluations the two groups have done.Dean Karlan seems to have played a big role in advancing evidence-based global development.USAID has an allocation of $29.4 billion for 2023. Wikipedia says this is the world's largest aid budget. If Prof. Karlan improves the effectiveness of the USAID program by even a small amount it could have a huge positive impact.Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.