Dean Karlan

Dean Karlan is the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance, and co-director of the Global Poverty Research Lab at Northwestern University. He is the Founder and President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a research and policy nonprofit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty. His research focuses on development and behavioral economics, typically using experimental methods to examine questions about poverty and behavior change. In particular, he published in Science a six-country randomized controlled trial of a multi-faceted program to help ultra-poor households build sustainable and independent sources of income, a program built on BRAC’s program in Bangladesh. His policy and research on this program is ongoing in Ghana, Philippines, Uganda, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. He is on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab. From 2005-2017 he was a professor of economics at Yale University, and from 2002-2005 he was a professor of economics at Princeton University. He co-founded stickK.com and ImpactMatters, and co-authored four books: More Than Good Intentions, Economics, Failing in the Field, The Goldilocks Challenge, and Economics, a principles textbook. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an M.B.A. and an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.