Esther Duflo
Encyclopedia
Esther Duflo is a French
economist
, currently the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor
of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. She is also co-founder and the Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
. Duflo is an NBER Research Associate
, serves on the board of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and is Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
's development economics
program.
Her research focuses on microeconomic
issues in developing countries, including household behavior
, education
, access to finance
, health
, and policy evaluation
. Together with Abhijit Banerjee
, Dean Karlan
, Michael Kremer
, John A. List
, and Sendhil Mullainathan
, she has been a driving force in advancing field experiment
s as an important methodology
to discover causal relationships
in economics
.
in Paris
in 1994, received a master's degree from DELTA in Paris
jointly with L'Ecole Normale Supérieure
in 1995, and completed a PhD in Economics
at MIT in 1999. Upon completing her MIT PhD she was appointed assistant professor of economics
at MIT, and has been at MIT ever since, aside from being on leave to Princeton University
in 2001-2002. She was promoted to associate professor (with tenure
) in 2002, at the age of 29, making her among the youngest faculty at the Institute to be awarded tenure.
for economists under the age of forty who are judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. She received her (first) honorary doctorate from the Université catholique de Louvain
, Belgium Feb 2, 2010.
In 2009 she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow
, otherwise known as a "genius
" grant. She is also a fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
from 2009. On May 21, 2009 she was selected as the first recipient of the Calvó-Armengol International Prize
, which she finally received on June 4, 2010. This is awarded every two years to a top young researcher in economics or the social sciences for contributions to the theory and comprehension of the mechanisms of social interaction.
The US magazine Foreign Policy
named her as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008. In 2010, Foreign Policy again named her to its list of top 100 global thinkers. The Economist
lists Duflo as one of the top 8 young economists in the world. She was named one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people in the world in April 2011.
In 2005, Le Monde, Cercle des économistes awarded her the Best Young French Economist prize. She was awarded the Elaine Bennett Research Prize by the American Economic Association
in 2002. This prize honors a woman economist under the age of forty who has made outstanding contributions in any field of economic research.
, and co-editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics
and the Journal of Development Economics
, and is a member of the editorial committee of the Annual Review of Economics
. Duflo is also a member of the Human Capital Research Programme within the International Growth Centre
.
She is currently a co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
at MIT, and writes a monthly column for Libération
, a French daily.
Duflo was the main speaker at the first Bocconi Lecture of Bocconi University
in 2010, followed in 2011 by Caroline Hoxby
.
, co-authored with Abhijit V. Banerjee. It documents their 15 years of experience in conducting randomized control trials to alleviate poverty. The book has received a very positive acclaim. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
commented on book "A marvelously insightful book by the two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty."
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, currently the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics
Development economics
Development Economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example,...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. She is also co-founder and the Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab is an academic center located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics which is dedicated to evaluating the impact of anti-poverty programs through randomized controlled trials similar to those used in medical research...
. Duflo is an NBER Research Associate
Research associate
The title of research associate is used to denote an academic research position at a university or similar institution. A research associate usually conducts research under the supervision of a principal investigator. In contrast to a research assistant or research officer, a research associate...
, serves on the board of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and is Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is a progressive economic policy think-tank based in Washington, DC, founded in 1999. CEPR works on Social Security, the US housing bubble, developing country economies , and gaps in the social policy fabric of the US economy.According to its own...
's development economics
Development economics
Development Economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example,...
program.
Her research focuses on microeconomic
Microeconomics
Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of how the individual modern household and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources. Typically, it applies to markets where goods or services are being bought and sold...
issues in developing countries, including household behavior
Family economics
The family, although recognized as fundamental from Adam Smith on, received little systematic treatment in economics before the 1950s. A significant exception was Thomas Malthus's model of population growth. The work of Gary Becker and others initiated contemporary research on family economics ...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, access to finance
Access to finance
Access to finance refers to the possibility that individuals or enterprises can access financial services, including credit, deposit, payment, insurance, and other risk management services...
, health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, and policy evaluation
Policy analysis
Policy analysis is "determining which of various alternative policies will most achieve a given set of goals in light of the relations between the policies and the goals". However, policy analysis can be divided into two major fields. Analysis of policy is analytical and descriptive—i.e., it...
. Together with Abhijit Banerjee
Abhijit Banerjee
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian economist. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, Dean Karlan
Dean Karlan
Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University and a Research Fellow at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, Michael Kremer
Michael Kremer
Michael Robert Kremer is a development economist and is currently the Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and was named a Young Global...
, John A. List
John A. List
John August List is The Homer J. Livingston Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 1996...
, and Sendhil Mullainathan
Sendhil Mullainathan
Sendhil Mullainathan is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He was hired with tenure by Harvard in 2004 after having spent six years at MIT, first as a junior faculty member and then as a full professor. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" and conducts research on...
, she has been a driving force in advancing field experiment
Field experiment
A field experiment applies the scientific method to experimentally examine an intervention in the real world rather than in the laboratory...
s as an important methodology
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
to discover causal relationships
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
.
Education
Duflo completed her undergraduate studies at L'Ecole Normale SupérieureÉcole Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1994, received a master's degree from DELTA in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
jointly with L'Ecole Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
in 1995, and completed a PhD in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at MIT in 1999. Upon completing her MIT PhD she was appointed assistant professor of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at MIT, and has been at MIT ever since, aside from being on leave to Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 2001-2002. She was promoted to associate professor (with tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
) in 2002, at the age of 29, making her among the youngest faculty at the Institute to be awarded tenure.
Awards
She is a recipient of the 2010 John Bates Clark MedalJohn Bates Clark Medal
The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge"...
for economists under the age of forty who are judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. She received her (first) honorary doctorate from the Université catholique de Louvain
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
, Belgium Feb 2, 2010.
In 2009 she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
, otherwise known as a "genius
Genius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
" grant. She is also a fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
from 2009. On May 21, 2009 she was selected as the first recipient of the Calvó-Armengol International Prize
Calvó-Armengol International Prize
The Calvó-Armengol International Prize is awarded every two years by the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics in cooperation with the Govern d'Andorra and the Fundació Crèdit Andorrà to "a top researcher in economics or the social sciences younger than 40 years old for his or her contribution to...
, which she finally received on June 4, 2010. This is awarded every two years to a top young researcher in economics or the social sciences for contributions to the theory and comprehension of the mechanisms of social interaction.
The US magazine Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...
named her as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008. In 2010, Foreign Policy again named her to its list of top 100 global thinkers. The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
lists Duflo as one of the top 8 young economists in the world. She was named one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people in the world in April 2011.
In 2005, Le Monde, Cercle des économistes awarded her the Best Young French Economist prize. She was awarded the Elaine Bennett Research Prize by the American Economic Association
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association, or AEA, is a learned society in the field of economics, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It publishes one of the most prestigious academic journals in economics: the American Economic Review...
in 2002. This prize honors a woman economist under the age of forty who has made outstanding contributions in any field of economic research.
Other Professional Activities
Esther Duflo serves as founding editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied EconomicsAmerican Economic Journal
The American Economic Journal is a group of four peer-reviewed academic journals published by the American Economic Association. The names of the individual journals consist of the prefix American Economic Journal with a descriptor of the field attached...
, and co-editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics
Review of Economics and Statistics
The Review of Economics and Statistics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specializing in applied quantitative economics, now called econometrics. It was founded in 1917 and first published as The Review of Economic Statistics in 1919...
and the Journal of Development Economics
Journal of Development Economics
The Journal of Development Economics is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1974 and is considered the top field journal in development economics....
, and is a member of the editorial committee of the Annual Review of Economics
Annual Review of Economics
Annual Review of Economics is an academic journal for economics, published by Annual Reviews. The co-editors of the journal are Kenneth J. Arrow and Timothy F...
. Duflo is also a member of the Human Capital Research Programme within the International Growth Centre
International Growth Centre
The International Growth Centre is a research institute based jointly at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Oxford University that provides advice on economic growth to governments of developing countries...
.
She is currently a co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab is an academic center located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics which is dedicated to evaluating the impact of anti-poverty programs through randomized controlled trials similar to those used in medical research...
at MIT, and writes a monthly column for Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
, a French daily.
Duflo was the main speaker at the first Bocconi Lecture of Bocconi University
Bocconi University
Bocconi University is a private university located in central Milan, beside Parco Ravizza. Bocconi provides undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education, in addition to a range of double degree programs, in the fields of economics, management, finance and law. According to many university...
in 2010, followed in 2011 by Caroline Hoxby
Caroline Hoxby
Caroline Minter Hoxby is a labor and public economist whose research focuses on issues in education and local public economics. Currently, she is the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor in Economics at Stanford and director of the Economics of Education Program for the National Bureau of Economic...
.
Publications
In April 2011 she released her latest book Poor EconomicsPoor Economics
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty is a non-fiction book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both professors of Economics at MIT. The book reports on the effectiveness of solutions to global poverty using a evidence-based randomized control trial approach...
, co-authored with Abhijit V. Banerjee. It documents their 15 years of experience in conducting randomized control trials to alleviate poverty. The book has received a very positive acclaim. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
commented on book "A marvelously insightful book by the two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty."
External links and references
- Esther Duflo's Home Page at MIT
- Poverty Action Lab
- 2008 Interview of Esther Duflo at Philanthropy Action
- 2011 Interview of Esther Duflo at Philanthropy Action
- The Experimental Approach to Development Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo. Annual Review of Economics, Vol. 1: 151-78
- Social experiments to fight poverty at TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
2010 - Website for her book Poor Economics