Dan Levy

Dan Levy, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Faculty Chair of the Kennedy School's SLATE (Strengthening Learning and Teaching Excellence) Initiative, teaches courses in quantitative methods, policy analysis, and program evaluation. He currently serves as co-principal investigator of Transparency for Development (T4D), a project consisting in the design and mixed-methods evaluation of interventions aimed at improving transparency and accountability in delivery of health services in developing countries. He oversees the training component of BCURE, a project that involves training policymakers in better using evidence through a combination of online and in-person sessions. He directed impact evaluations of girl-friendly school construction programs in Burkina Faso and Niger, and was involved in the evaluation of a conditional cash transfer program in Jamaica, and a technical assistance project to Mexico's Social Development Ministry (Sedesol). He received his PhD in Economics from Northwestern University, grew up in Venezuela, and is fluent in Spanish and French. He serves as faculty affiliate of JPAL (MIT), CID, EPoD and the Ash Center.

He also serves as the faculty co-chair of a week-long executive education program titled "Using Evidence to Improve Policy and Programs" aimed primarily at professionals involved in designing, implementing and/or funding social programs.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Levy, Dan, and Jim Ohls. "Evaluation of Jamaica's PATH Conditional Cash Transfer Programme." Journal of Development Effectiveness 2.4 (December 2010): 421-441.
• Moreno, Lorenzo, Larissa Campuzano, Dan Levy, and Randall Blair. "Toward Closing the Evaluation Gap: Lessons Learned from Three Recent Evaluations of Social Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean." Well-being and Social Policy 5.2 (2009): 1-23.
• Kremer, Michael, and Dan Levy. "Peer Effects and Alcohol Use among College Students." Journal of Economic Perspectives 22.3 (Summer 2008): 189-206.
• Boisjoly, Johanne, Greg J. Duncan, Michael Kremer, Dan Levy, and Jacque Eccles. "Empathy or Antipathy? The Impact of Diversity." American Economic Review 96.5 (December 2006): 1890-1905.

Research Papers/Reports

• Levy, Dan, Harounan Kazianga, Leigh Linden, and Matt Sloan. "Impact Evaluation of Burkina Faso's BRIGHT Program, Final Report." Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., May 2009.
• Levy, Dan, and Jim Ohls. "Evaluation of Jamaica's PATH Programme: Final Report." Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. MPR Reference No. 8966-090, March 2007.

Outside Professional Activities

Transparent Engagement

Harvard Kennedy School is proud of its energetic involvement in the world. To better understand how to solve public problems by improving policy and leadership, we engage directly with policymakers, public leaders, governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses whose activities affect those problems. However, we recognize that such engagement can raise questions about perceived and potential conflicts of interest, so we disclose publicly the key professional activities of our faculty outside the Kennedy School.

Outside Professional Activities For Dan Levy

Barna School of Management (Dominican Republic), Consultant and Presenter

Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, Advisory Board Member

Fundación Bancaria “la Caixa”(Spain), Consultant and Presenter

Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Presenter

Global Development Network (GDN), Consultant

IESA (Venezuela), Presenter

IESE (Spain), Presenter

JPAL (MIT), Faculty Affiliate

Inter-American Development Bank, Consultant

LASPAU, Presenter

Mathematica Policy Research, Senior Researcher

Turning Technologies, Presenter

Universidad Católica Boliviana, Presenter

Universidad de Los Andés (Chile), Presenter

World Bank, Consultant

World Teach, Advisory Board Member