Dear NBER Board Members, Researchers, and Staff -
I hope that you will join me in congratulating Research Associates
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, who this morning
were awarded the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for
developing the "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in announcing the prize,
explained that this year's laureates have "considerably improved our
ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new
experiment-based approach has transformed development economics." Their
research has not only generated a wealth of substantive findings about
how public and private policy interventions in education, health,
agriculture, business formation, and other areas can contribute to
poverty alleviation, but also influenced virtually every sub-field of
empirical economics by demonstrating the power of randomized trials and
field experiments to contribute to economic knowledge.
The Academy released both a high-level summary of their contributions:
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/10/popular-economicsciencesprize2019.pdf
as well as a longer explanation of the scientific contributions that
underlie this work:
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/10/advanced-economicsciencesprize2019.pdf
Abhijit Banerjee is the Ford Foundation International Professor of
Economics at MIT, and a co-director of the Adbul Latif Jameel Poverty
Action Lab (JPAL). He is a Research Associate in the NBER programs on
Development Economics (DEV) and Economic Fluctuations and Growth (EFG).
Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation
and Development Economics at MIT and a co-director of JPAL. She is a
Research Associate in four NBER programs: Economics of Aging, Children,
DEV, and Education. Michael Kremer, the Gates Professor of Developing
Societies at Harvard, is also a Research Associate in four NBER
programs: Children, DEV, EFG, and Education.
All best wishes.
Jim Poterba
Received on Mon Oct 14 2019 - 08:11:38 EDT
