More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty

Speaker: Dr. Dean Karlan, President & Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action, Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University, and Author

What foreign aid, development, health and microfinance programs are really working and why?

What types of interventions would be more effective in the fight against global poverty?

In America alone, individual donors contribute over $200 billion to charity annually, three times as much as corporations, foundations, and bequests combined.  Where does all this money go and does it truly make a difference in lifting the world’s poorest out of poverty?

The World Affairs Council and the Yale Association of Western Washington present Dr. Dean Karlan, President & Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action, Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University, and Author of More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty, who will address a new approach to evaluating effectiveness of different poverty-alleviation programs around the globe. Whether analyzing microfinance programs in India or small-business development programs in Ghana, Dr. Karlan will discuss why behavioral economics and making small changes in banking practices, health care, and other programs can help improve the lives of the poor.

Dr. Dean Karlan is an assistant professor of economics at Yale University. Dr. Karlan is also president of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), co-director of the Financial Access Initiative, a consortium created with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a research fellow of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and co-founder and president of StickK.com. His research focuses on microeconomic issues of financial decision-making, specifically employing experimental methodologies to examine what works, what does not, and why in interventions in microfinance and health. He has consulted for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, FINCA International and the Guatemalan government. In 2007, he received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Mr. Karlan 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.

Event pricing is as follows:

– Members & Students (Lecture ONLY) – $10.00

– Non-Members (Lecture ONLY) – $15.00

– Members & Students (Reception & Lecture) – $20.00

– Non-Members (Reception & Lecture) – $30.00

– Yale Alumni (Reception & Lecture) – $27.50

NOTE: The Networking Reception begins at 6:00 p.m. in the University of Washington Paccar Hall Room 456, and includes light appetizers and a wine bar. The lecture is located at the University of Washington Paccar Hall, Room 390, and begins at 7:00 p.m. Books will be available for purchase before and after the event. A book signing will take place after the event.

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University of Washington, Paccar Hall

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