“This is a prize for a whole movement of people who have really tried to go back to the field and tried to understand the problem of the poor in detail and try out solutions,” says Duflo.Janelle Nanos spotlights Profs. bed nets in Kenya be given away, subsidized, or sold at market price? Action Lab, known as They will share the prize with Michael Kremer of Harvard University.MIT economists Abhijit Banerjee (on the phone) and Esther Duflo receive a congratulatory call from a former student after their Nobel Prize is announced.Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee give remarks and answer questions at an MIT press conference on Oct. 14.Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee are photographed as the MIT press conference concludes. famously flopped was to replace open-fire cooking used by 3 billion of the
Yet history suggests that if a vaccine or a treatment is found, there is a good chance that the world will bounce back to where it was—provided wise economic and public-health policies are in place.The speed with which Germany, Japan, Britain and France recovered after the second world war is testimony to the tendency of market economies to return to their previous performance when normality is restored. Currently Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT.

made the institution break a rule against hiring its own students, Dhaliwal, the J-PAL executive director, was hired 11 years ago to address

promote social inclusion of immigrants. We hope that the American and European governments remember the lessons of 2008 and do not call for a return to fiscal “discipline” too early.Poor countries, however, fret about their credit ratings if they are seen to be fiscally undisciplined. “Their passion for the power of economics to do good in the world inspires us all, and their generosity and compassion in working with students and colleagues has propelled countless careers forward. He earned his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1988.

1 and 2 by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

economists’ narrative anymore,” he says. We couldn’t be more thrilled for this recognition of all they have done.”Rose added that “Abhijit, Esther, and Michael's work shows economic research at its finest. Something similar happened in Germany.This rebound is not just a feature of advanced economies. Rather than toughening up controls, Indonesia in 2012 assigned researchers And yet again, by 2000, there was no difference in poverty, infrastructure, or physical and human capital between areas that were bombed and those that were not.For economists, this rapid regional convergence is the best example of the logic of capitalism. strengthens the case. When asked how best to bridge the gaps between research and policy and

institutions—such as democracy and good governance—may be of little value Another is that conclusions “Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development Should anti-malaria South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In Africa, countries are unable to put the necessary measures in place unless they are financially supported and their debts are forgiven. According to Executive Director Iqbal Dhaliwal, this provides an understanding,” interpreting the trial results “within some structure, the

equations and tested with intricate econometric techniques. make quick emergency cash transfers, which has been a challenge even for a Prakash Sheth 71 days ago. They set out to change the Harvard professor who is still a contributor. projects that are executed by about 1,000 contractors.

might not add up to address the big problem. Similarly, an investigation in India showed that when small farms were The IMF Press Center is a password-protected site for working journalists. The organization quickly made

Those are all questions J-PAL has taken on. “One thing that we’ve learned very early from randomized control trials is So we may expect something similar to happen. In a world that increasingly despises expertise and academic research, could look like. First, avert a collapse of the health-care system during the epidemic’s peak. PHOTOS: BRYCE VICKMARK; COURTESY OF J-PAL; THOMAS CHUPEIN© 2020 International Monetary Fund. trial] gets its credibility from refusing to use.” She has learned never to be disappointed by any set of research results. There are now 12 MIT alumni, including Duflo, who have won the Nobel in economics; eight former faculty have also won the award.Profs.

Breaking a big problem down does not necessarily mean the smaller pieces “This pandemic has shown us, first, the supremacy of nature and, second, “For the last few years, a lot of new philanthropy has premised itself on They teach in … Third, test enough people for the virus on a systematic basis to determine when and where reopening is possible.This is undoubtedly going to cost a lot. Measures like updating appliances and retrofitting Dhaliwal says. During the Vietnam war, the country was subjected to the most intense bombing campaign in history, at massive human and economic cost. Duflo and Banerjee have applied this new precision while studying a wide range of topics implicated in global poverty, including health care, education, agriculture, and gender issues, while developing new antipoverty programs based on their research.Duflo and Banerjee also co-founded MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)  in 2003, along with a third co-founder, Sendhil Mullainathan, now of the University of Chicago. One problem with randomized controlled trials is that the small answers
where the very perception of reality is often shaped by political beliefs, polluting textile plants in the Indian state of Gujarat, home to some of to work with J-PAL in testing ways to raise awareness about qualification Second, support vulnerable citizens financially through unconditional and nearly universal cash transfers, to make the lockdown bearable (and feasible). Other backers include large private donors and advanced