Esther Duflo (born 25 October 1972) is a French economist, currently a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Together with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, she was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her use of randomized controlled trials to alleviate global poverty.^[1]

Background

Duflo double-majored in economics and history at the École Normale Supérieure, and subsequently received a master's degree in economics from DELTA (now the Paris School of Economics) and a doctoral degree in economics from MIT. After completing her studies, she joined MIT's faculty and was, in 2005, appointed Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics. Together with Abhijit Banerjee and Sendhil Mullainathan, she founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in 2003, and remains one of the two Directors of that global research center.