Esther Duflo
Who was Esther Duflo?
Nobel laureate: Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2019)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Esther Duflo (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Esther Caroline Duflo is a French-American economist born on October 25, 1972, in Paris, France. She is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, Duflo became the youngest person and the second woman to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, sharing the award with her husband Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer for their experimental work on reducing global poverty.
Duflo was educated in both France and the United States. She studied at Lycée Henri-IV, then moved on to École Normale Supérieure. She furthered her education at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and later completed her graduate studies at MIT. Her education gave her a strong base in both theoretical and practical economics.
As co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, Duflo has played a key role in advocating for randomized controlled trials in policy evaluation. This research center has made a real-world impact, with programs tested by J-PAL affiliated researchers affecting over 400 million people as of 2020. She focuses on the microeconomics of development, such as household behavior, education, financial inclusion, politics, gender issues, and health.
Duflo is connected with several top research organizations. She is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a board member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). She also leads the development economics program at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Since 2024, she has been president of the Paris School of Economics while continuing her work at MIT. In October 2025, the University of Zurich announced that Duflo and Banerjee would join their faculty in July 2026.
Duflo has received many awards for her work in economics, including the Sloan Fellowship (2002), the Elaine Bennett Research Prize (2002), the MacArthur Fellows Program fellowship (2009), and the John Bates Clark Medal (2010). She has co-authored key books with Abhijit Banerjee, like 'Poor Economics' (2011) and 'Good Economics for Hard Times' (2019), which have made development economics more accessible to a wide audience.
Before Fame
Growing up in Paris during the 1970s and 1980s, Duflo experienced a time when development economics was changing a lot. Traditional views on poverty were being questioned by new methods that focused more on evidence and concrete results. Her strong academic skills took her through France's top educational system, beginning at Lycée Henri-IV, a highly regarded preparatory school.
Duflo's rise in development economics was influenced by a broad shift towards experimental approaches in social sciences during the 1990s and early 2000s. While studying at MIT, there was a growing interest in using randomized controlled trials to address economic policy issues, especially in developing countries. This major change in economics became the basis of her career and eventually led to her receiving a Nobel Prize.
Key Achievements
- Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2019) for experimental approach to alleviating global poverty
- Co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), impacting over 400 million people through evidence-based programs
- Received the John Bates Clark Medal (2010) as the best American economist under 40
- MacArthur Fellowship recipient (2009) recognizing her innovative research methods
- Co-authored influential books including 'Poor Economics' and 'Good Economics for Hard Times'
Did You Know?
- 01.At age 46, she became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
- 02.She is only the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, following Elinor Ostrom in 2009
- 03.Her research has directly influenced policy decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide through randomized controlled trials
- 04.She holds dual French and American citizenship and splits her time between multiple prestigious academic institutions
- 05.The Calvó-Armengol International Prize she received in 2010 was awarded the same year as her CNRS innovation medal and Fellow of the Econometric Society recognition
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences | 2019 | for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty |
| Sloan Fellowship | 2002 | — |
| Elaine Bennett Research Prize | 2002 | — |
| Prix du meilleur jeune économiste de France | 2005 | — |
| CNRS bronze medal | 2005 | — |
| MacArthur Fellows Program | 2009 | — |
| John Bates Clark Medal | 2010 | — |
| Fellow of the Econometric Society | 2010 | — |
| Calvó-Armengol International Prize | 2010 | — |
| Honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Louvain | 2010 | — |
| CNRS innovation medal | 2011 | — |
| Officer of the National Order of Merit | 2013 | — |
| John von Neumann Award | 2013 | — |
| Dan David Prize | 2013 | — |
| honorary doctor of Yale University | 2013 | — |
| Albert O. Hirschman Prize | 2014 | — |
| Infosys Prize | 2014 | — |
| Erna Hamburger Prize | 2014 | — |
| Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences | 2015 | — |
| honorary degree of HEC Paris | 2015 | — |
| honorary doctor of Erasmus University Rotterdam | 2019 | — |
| Commander of the Legion of Honour | 2020 | — |
| Honorary doctor of the University of Liège | 2023 | — |
| Fellow of the British Academy | — | — |
| Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences | — | — |