Eva Love Vivalt is a Canadian

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and the director of the Global Priorities Institute at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. She is the founder of AidGrade, a research institute that generates and synthesizes evidence in international development.

Education

Vivalt received a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.A. in Mathematics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and an M.Phil. in Development Studies at the

. Before joining the University of Toronto, she held positions at

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

Academic career

Vivalt's main research interests are the study of obstacles to evidence-based policy decisions. She also has interests in

developmental economics Development economics is a branch of economics that deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural c ...

behavioral economics Behavioral economics is the study of the psychological (e.g. cognitive, behavioral, affective, social) factors involved in the decisions of individuals or institutions, and how these decisions deviate from those implied by traditional economi ...

and

effective altruism Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to b ...

. She is a principal investigator on Y Combinator Research’s basic income study. She is considered an expert on evidence aggregation and the use of Bayesian hierarchical models and is known for her work on

metascience Metascience (also known as meta-research) is the use of scientific methodology to study science itself. Metascience seeks to increase the quality of scientific research while reducing inefficiency. It is also known as "research on research" and ...

. Research on the external validity of impact evaluations Vivalt is known for her work on the

external validity External validity is the validity of applying the conclusions of a scientific study outside the context of that study. In other words, it is the extent to which the results of a study can generalize or transport to other situations, people, stimul ...

of impact evaluations. As a basis for this work, she built a large database of impact evaluations in global development. She found that most development interventions cannot be distinguished from one another in terms of the impacts that they have on a particular outcome and that effect sizes greatly vary within a particular intervention-outcome combination. Her work in this area has been cited by

Angus Deaton Sir Angus Stewart Deaton (born 19 October 1945) is a British-American economist and academic. Deaton is currently a Senior Scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Princeton School ...

Lant Pritchett Lant Pritchett (born 1959) is an American development economist. He was the RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford until March 2023 and is now a Visiting Professor of Practice at the School of Public P ...

, and other leading economists and has entered the public discourse.

Other activity

In 2019, together with

Stefano DellaVigna Stefano DellaVigna (born June 19, 1973) is an Italian economist and the Daniel E. Koshland, Sr. Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley. Born in Como, Italy, he emigr ...

and Devin Pope, Vivalt launched Social Science Prediction Platform, a tool that enables researchers to forecast the results of ongoing studies in the social sciences. Her research on impact evaluation has been covered by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', '' Vox'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'', and other publications. Vivalt is a member of

Giving What We Can Giving What We Can (GWWC) is an effective altruism nonprofit that promotes effective giving through education, outreach, and advocacy around the 10% Pledge, which encourages members to donate at least 10% of their income to effective charities. ...

, a community of people who have pledged to donate 10% of their income to the world's most effective charitable organisations.

Personal life

Vivalt married American economist

Gabriel Carroll Gabriel Drew Carroll (born December 24, 1982) is a professor of economics at the University of Toronto. He was born to tech industry worker parents in Oakland. He graduated from Harvard University with B.A. in mathematics and linguistics in 200 ...

in August 2019.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vivalt, Eva Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford Academic staff of the Australian National University Canadian economists Academics from Toronto UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Year of birth missing (living people)