Esther Duflo | |
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![]() Duflo in 2009 | |
Born | |
Education | |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Academic career | |
Field | Development economics |
Institutions | |
Doctoral advisor | Abhijit Banerjee • Joshua Angrist |
Doctoral students | Emily Breza • Dean Karlan • Rachael Meager • Nancy Qian |
Contributions | Randomized controlled trials |
Awards |
|
Information at IDEAS / RePEc |
Esther Duflo, FBA (French: [dyflo]; born 25 October 1972) is a French-American economist[1] currently serving as the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[2] In 2019, she was jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences alongside Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".[3]
In addition to her academic appointment, Duflo is the co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL),[2] an MIT-based research center promoting the use of randomized controlled trials in policy evaluation.[4] As of 2020, more than 400 million people had been impacted by programs tested by J-PAL affiliated researchers.[5] Since 2024, Duflo has also served as the president of the Paris School of Economics alongside her appointment at MIT.[6]
Duflo is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER),[7] a board member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD),[8] and the director of the development economics program of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.[7] Her research focuses on the microeconomics of development and spans topics such as household behavior,[9] education,[9][10] financial inclusion,[4] political economy,[10] gender,[10] and health.[11] Prior to receiving the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Duflo was awarded the Elaine Bennett Research Prize (2002)[9] and John Bates Clark Medal (2010)[10] by the American Economic Association.
Together with Abhijit Banerjee, Duflo is the co-author of Poor Economics[11] and Good Economics for Hard Times,[12] published in April 2011 and November 2019, respectively. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Duflo is the seventh most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses.[13]