Research of Nobel Prize Winners
In one widely noted experiment, Duflo and Banerjee found that immunization rates for children in rural India jump dramatically (from 5 percent to 39 percent) when their families are offered modest incentives for immunization, such as lentils.
They have also studied educational issues extensively uncovering new results about improvements in student achievement (when classes are divided into small groups) and ways to improve teacher attendance.
The topics of research include fertilizer use by Kenyan farmers, physician training in India, HIV prevention in Africa, the effects of small-scale lending programs, and the impact of aid programs in Indonesia.
In one study conducted on three continents, Duflo and Banerjee also reported significant welfare gains from an intervention that helps the poor simultaneously in multiple ways, including job training, productive assets, and health information.
Duflo and Banerjee have published dozens of research papers, together and with other co-authors. They have also co-written two books together, “Poor Economics” (2011) and the forthcoming “Good Economics for Hard Times” (2019).
http://news.mit.edu/2019/esther-duflo-abhijit-banerjee-win-2019-nobel-prize-economics-1014
Abhijit Banerjee Papers - MIT Website
https://economics.mit.edu/faculty/banerjee/papers
Abhijit Banerjee Papers - -NBER Website
https://www.nber.org/people/abhijit_banerjee
PUTTING A BAND-AID ON A CORPSE: INCENTIVES FOR NURSES IN THE INDIAN PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Abhijit V. Banerjee, Rachel Glennerster, and Esther Duflo
J Eur Econ Assoc. 2008; 6(2-3): 487–500.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2826809/
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019
Abhijit BanerjeeEsther Duflo
Michael Kremer
Press release: The Prize in Economic Sciences 2019
14 October 2019
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 to
Abhijit Banerjee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
Esther Duflo
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
Michael Kremer
Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
“for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”
Their research is helping us fight poverty
The research conducted by this year’s Laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field of research.
Despite recent dramatic improvements, one of humanity’s most urgent issues is the reduction of global poverty, in all its forms. More than 700 million people still subsist on extremely low incomes. Every year, around five million children under the age of five still die of diseases that could often have been prevented or cured with inexpensive treatments. Half of the world’s children still leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills.
This year’s Laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty. In brief, it involves dividing this issue into smaller, more manageable, questions – for example, the most effective interventions for improving educational outcomes or child health. They have shown that these smaller, more precise, questions are often best answered via carefully designed experiments among the people who are most affected.
In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and his colleagues demonstrated how powerful this approach can be, using field experiments to test a range of interventions that could improve school results in western Kenya.
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, often with Michael Kremer, soon performed similar studies of other issues and in other countries. Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development economics.
The Laureates’ research findings – and those of the researchers following in their footsteps – have dramatically improved our ability to fight poverty in practice. As a direct result of one of their studies, more than five million Indian children have benefitted from effective programmes of remedial tutoring in schools. Another example is the heavy subsidies for preventive healthcare that have been introduced in many countries.
These are just two examples of how this new research has already helped to alleviate global poverty. It also has great potential to further improve the lives of the worst-off people around the world.
Illustrations
The illustrations are free to use for non-commercial purposes. Attribute ”© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”
Illustration: Difference productivity (pdf)
Illustration: Improved educational outcomes (pdf)
Illustration: Vaccination rates (pdf)
Read more about this year’s prize
Popular science background: Research to help the world’s poor
Scientific Background: Understanding development and poverty alleviation
Abhijit Banerjee, born 1961 in Mumbai, India. Ph.D. 1988 from Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
Esther Duflo, born 1972 in Paris, France. Ph.D. 1999 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
Michael Kremer, born 1964 in New York, USA. Ph.D. 1992 from Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
The Prize amount: 9 million Swedish krona, to be shared equally between the Laureates
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.
Nobel Prize® is a registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation.
Press release: The Prize in Economic Sciences 2019. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Mon. 28 Oct 2019.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2019/press-release/
Related News
MIT Function to felicitate professors Abhijit and Duflo
http://news.mit.edu/2019/esther-duflo-abhijit-banerjee-win-2019-nobel-prize-economics-1014
https://qz.com/1727604/banerjee-duflo-and-kremer-win-2019-nobel-prize-in-economics-for-poverty-research/
https://www.bloombergquint.com/economy-finance/abhijit-banerjee-nobel-laureate-economic-writer-directorand-cook
