Live at EA Global - The future of U.S. foreign aid (with Dean Karlan)

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Jan 7, 2026

Dean Karlan, Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics at Northwestern and founder of Innovations for Poverty Action, dives into U.S. foreign aid challenges. He discusses the misconception that aid comprises a large budget portion and how this affects public support. Karlan emphasizes the need for evidence-based decision-making in aid initiatives and describes innovative strategies for improving procurement processes. He also highlights the impact of the USAID shutdown, advocating for reforms that prioritize efficiency and partner government involvement.

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INSIGHT

Bridge Evidence To Procurement

USAID lacked a robust process to translate academic evidence into procurement-ready solutions.
Dean Karlan built an in-house evidence-use function to bridge papers and practical procurement design.

ADVICE

Write Problem-Focused Solicitations

Design solicitations that state the problem and present evidence-backed best buys.
Require bidders to answer key adaptation questions and justify cost and implementation choices.

INSIGHT

Use It Or Produce It

"Use it or produce it" demands choosing between deploying proven interventions or generating new evidence.
Conduct RCTs only when results will change future policy or implementation.

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Read the full transcript here.

What is the core public interest case for foreign aid beyond soft power? How should we define safety and prosperity? Why do many voters believe aid is a quarter of the budget when it is a tiny fraction and how does that shape support? How did a political decision to halt awards ripple through real programs and what safeguards failed? What legal and institutional checks should prevent a single administration from impounding funds that Congress appropriated? When government pauses, how can private funders triage the most life saving pieces without letting systems collapse? If an agency is rebuilt, which programs should be protected first and which processes should be redesigned from day one? How do we embed evidence and cost effectiveness at the start of strategy rather than as an afterthought in evaluation? What would it look like to center partner governments in the process so that learning becomes part of their own delivery? How can we avoid a fixation on what is easy to measure while still demanding clear estimates and accountability? What does it mean to meet donors where they are while steering them toward the highest impact use of funds?

Dean Karlan is the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University, and the Founder and former President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting solutions to global poverty problems. Karlan was the Chief Economist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2022 until resigning in 2025. Prior to 2022, he was on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab. In 2015, he co-founded ImpactMatters, a nonprofit dedicated to estimating and rating impact of nonprofit organizations in order to help donors choose good charities and to promote more transparency in the nonprofit sector. His research focuses on microeconomic issues of poverty, typically employing experimental methodologies and behavioral economics insights to examine what works, what does not, and why to address social problems

This episode was recorded live at EA Global: NYC 2025. Many thanks to the EA Global event organizers and staff for recording this conversation.

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Spencer Greenberg — Host + Director
Ryan Kessler — Producer + Technical Lead
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists
Igor Scaldini — Marketing Consultant

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