EAG Talks Innovation, economics, and effective altruism | Michael Kremer | EAG London: 2025
Innovation is the key driver of growth and increases in human wellbeing. Investing in innovation can be extremely cost-effective, because the costs of developing and testing new innovations are relatively low, but they can have huge impacts if scaled up by governments or firms to reach millions of people.Michael Kremer, 2019 economics Nobel Laureate, discusses his experience as a researcher developing innovations and as a funder. Kremer co-founded and served as scientific director for USAID's Development Innovation Ventures. Michael also discusses the potential of AI for global health development, including the potential of AI Weather forecasting to reduce poverty and improve food security.Professor Michael Kremer directs the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where he is an Economics Professor. He is the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for the “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.