Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo
Born	Esther Duflo 25 10, 1972
Birthplace	Paris, France
Nationality	French, American
Occupation	Economist, professor
Title	Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics
Employer	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known for	Randomized controlled trials in development economics; co-founding the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
Education	PhD in Economics (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Spouse(s)	Abhijit Banerjee
Children	2
Awards	Template:Ubl
Website	[http://www.povertyactionlab.com/ Official site]

Esther Duflo (born 25 October 1972) is a French-American economist who holds the position of Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, she was jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences alongside her husband, Abhijit Banerjee, and Michael Kremer, "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." At the age of 46, Duflo became the youngest person and only the second woman ever to receive the Nobel in Economics. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a research center based at MIT that promotes the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effectiveness of social programs and policies aimed at reducing poverty. As of 2020, more than 400 million people had been affected by programs tested by J-PAL-affiliated researchers. Together with Banerjee, Duflo co-authored the books Poor Economics (2011) and Good Economics for Hard Times (2019), both of which brought development economics research to a broad public audience.

Early Life

Esther Duflo was born on 25 October 1972 in Paris, France. She grew up in a Protestant family in France. Her mother was a pediatrician who was involved in medical humanitarian work, which exposed the young Duflo to questions of global poverty and the challenges faced by people in developing countries from an early age. Duflo has spoken publicly about how her mother's involvement in charitable and medical work in developing nations influenced her own intellectual trajectory and her eventual decision to pursue a career in economics focused on poverty alleviation.

Growing up in France, Duflo was educated in the French academic system, which provided her with a rigorous foundation in mathematics and the social sciences. Her early intellectual interests were broad, encompassing history and the humanities as well as the sciences. However, it was her exposure to the realities of global inequality—partly through her mother's experiences—that gradually drew her toward economics as a discipline that could offer practical solutions to the problem of poverty.

Duflo has noted in interviews that she did not initially set out to become an economist. Her path to the field was shaped by a combination of intellectual curiosity and a desire to address real-world problems with empirical rigor. In her own account, she was drawn to economics because it offered tools for understanding and intervening in the conditions that perpetuate poverty, rather than simply describing them.

Education

Duflo pursued her undergraduate studies in France, attending the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where she studied history and economics. She subsequently earned a master's degree in economics from the DELTA program (now part of the Paris School of Economics).

Duflo then moved to the United States to pursue doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she completed her PhD in economics in 1999. Her doctoral advisors at MIT were Abhijit Banerjee—who would become her long-term research collaborator and, later, her husband—and Joshua Angrist, both influential figures in the application of empirical methods to economic questions. Her doctoral research focused on development economics and employed the kind of field-experimental methodology that would come to define her career.

Career

Academic Positions at MIT

After completing her PhD in 1999, Duflo joined the MIT Department of Economics as a faculty member, beginning a career-long association with the institution. She rose through the academic ranks and was appointed to the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics chair, a named professorship that reflects her central focus on understanding and reducing global poverty.

Duflo's research has focused on the microeconomics of development and has spanned a range of topics including household behavior, education, financial inclusion, political economy, gender, and health. Her work is characterized by the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs)—a methodology adapted from clinical medicine—to evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions aimed at improving the lives of the poor. This approach represented a significant methodological shift in development economics, moving the field away from reliance on broad theoretical models and toward granular, evidence-based assessments of what actually works in practice.

According to the Open Syllabus Project, Duflo is the seventh most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses, reflecting her substantial influence on the teaching of the discipline.

In October 2025, the University of Zurich announced that Duflo and Banerjee would be joining the faculty of the UZH School of Business, Economics, and Informatics in July 2026. Since 2024, Duflo has also served as the president of the Paris School of Economics, alongside her continuing appointment at MIT.

Founding of J-PAL

In 2003, Duflo co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, together with Abhijit Banerjee and Sendhil Mullainathan. J-PAL is a global research center that works to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. The lab's core mission is to promote the use of randomized evaluations—rigorous field experiments—to test the effectiveness of programs and policies designed to help the poor.

Under Duflo's co-directorship, J-PAL has grown into one of the most influential institutions in development economics. The lab has a network of affiliated researchers who have conducted hundreds of randomized evaluations across dozens of countries, covering topics such as education, health, governance, agriculture, labor markets, and financial access. As of 2020, more than 400 million people had been reached by programs and policies that were scaled up or informed by evidence from J-PAL-affiliated research.

The impact of J-PAL's work extends beyond academic research. The lab actively engages with governments, NGOs, and international organizations to translate research findings into actionable policy recommendations. This "evidence-to-policy" pipeline has been central to Duflo's vision for the role of economics in the fight against poverty.

Duflo has articulated the philosophy underlying J-PAL's approach in numerous public statements. In her view, the provision of social services to people in poverty is essential precisely because poverty limits the choices available to families, who cannot afford essential services like education and healthcare on their own and must rely on state provisions.

Research Contributions

Duflo's research has made substantial contributions to the understanding of how specific interventions can improve outcomes for the poor in developing countries. Her work, much of it conducted in collaboration with Banerjee and other J-PAL-affiliated researchers, has addressed a wide array of policy-relevant questions.

In the field of education, Duflo and her collaborators have conducted randomized evaluations to assess the effectiveness of different approaches to improving educational outcomes in developing countries. Their research has examined the impact of teacher incentives, class size reductions, remedial education programs, and information provision on student performance and enrollment rates. These studies have provided policymakers with concrete evidence about which educational interventions yield measurable improvements and which do not.

In health, Duflo's research has investigated barriers to the adoption of preventive health measures, such as vaccination and bed net usage, among poor populations. Her work has shown that small incentives and nudges can dramatically increase take-up rates for health interventions, challenging the assumption that lack of demand is the primary barrier to health improvements in developing countries.

Duflo has also contributed to research on financial inclusion, examining how access to savings accounts, microcredit, and insurance products affects the economic behavior and well-being of poor households. Her work in this area has nuanced the debate around microfinance, providing evidence on both its potential benefits and its limitations.

In the area of governance and political economy, Duflo has studied the effects of political reservation systems (such as those in India that reserve leadership positions for women) on policy outcomes and gender norms. Her research has shown that exposure to female political leaders can change attitudes toward women in positions of authority, with implications for gender equality more broadly.

Publications

Together with Abhijit Banerjee, Duflo co-authored Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, published in April 2011. The book synthesizes findings from years of randomized evaluations conducted by Duflo, Banerjee, and their collaborators, presenting evidence on what works and what does not in the fight against poverty. Poor Economics received international attention and was awarded the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2011.

In November 2019, Duflo and Banerjee published their second co-authored book, Good Economics for Hard Times, which addressed a broader set of economic questions—including immigration, trade, technological change, and inequality—through the lens of rigorous empirical evidence. The book argued for a more evidence-based approach to public policy debates, drawing on the authors' research and that of other economists.

Duflo has also authored or co-authored a large number of academic papers published in leading economics journals. Her work is among the most cited in the field of development economics.

Institutional Roles

In addition to her academic appointment at MIT and her leadership of J-PAL, Duflo holds a number of other institutional positions. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a board member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and the director of the development economics program of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

In November 2025, Duflo was announced as the Chair of the Jury for the inaugural Lafayette Fellowship cycle, a graduate fellowship program organized by Villa Albertine, a French cultural institution in the United States.

Since 2024, Duflo has served as president of the Paris School of Economics, reflecting her continued engagement with the French academic and research community.

Public Engagement and Advocacy

Duflo has been active in bringing the findings of development economics research to broader public audiences. In addition to her books, she has delivered numerous public lectures and interviews on the subjects of poverty, education, and economic policy. In a 2025 interview with the Harvard Business Review, Duflo discussed her motivations for becoming an economist, the process by which she and her colleagues popularized the use of randomized controlled trials in the field, and her views on the future of development economics.

Duflo has also spoken publicly about the importance of education systems that prioritize adaptability and curiosity over narrow skills training. In a 2025 address, she urged students to resist the pressure to chase "perfect" careers, arguing that skills can become obsolete and that the ability to learn and adapt is more valuable than any specific credential.

Personal Life

Esther Duflo is married to Abhijit Banerjee, her long-time research collaborator and co-laureate of the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Banerjee was also her doctoral advisor at MIT. Together, they have two children. The couple's professional and personal partnership has been the subject of considerable public and media interest, particularly following their joint receipt of the Nobel Prize.

Duflo holds both French and American nationality. She has maintained strong ties to France throughout her career, serving as president of the Paris School of Economics since 2024 and participating in French cultural and academic initiatives.

Recognition

Duflo has received numerous awards and honors over the course of her career, reflecting the impact of her research and institutional contributions.

In 2009, Duflo was named a MacArthur Fellow, receiving the so-called "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

In 2010, she was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal by the American Economic Association, which is given to the American economist under the age of 40 who has made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Duflo was the first non-American-born economist and the first woman to receive the Clark Medal.

In 2002, Duflo received the Elaine Bennett Research Prize from the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP).

In 2015, she was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, one of Spain's most significant international prizes.

In 2019, Duflo received the Calvó-Armengol International Prize, awarded by the Barcelona School of Economics.

Duflo has been named to Foreign Policy magazine's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers on multiple occasions, including in 2008, 2010, and 2012.

In 2008, The Economist identified Duflo as one of the top young economists of the decade. In 2011, Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Duflo is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Legacy

Esther Duflo's contributions to economics have had a measurable impact on both the academic discipline and the practice of development policy. Her central methodological contribution—the systematic application of randomized controlled trials to evaluate anti-poverty interventions—has transformed the way economists, governments, and international organizations approach questions of development and social policy.

Through J-PAL, Duflo and her collaborators have built an institutional infrastructure that connects academic research to policy implementation on a global scale. The lab's model of conducting rigorous evaluations and then working with governments and organizations to scale up programs that prove effective has been replicated and adapted by institutions around the world. As of 2020, J-PAL's network of affiliated researchers had conducted evaluations affecting the lives of more than 400 million people, a figure that underscores the real-world reach of the lab's work.

Duflo's receipt of the Nobel Prize in 2019, shared with Banerjee and Kremer, marked a significant moment for the field of development economics. The Nobel Committee's recognition of their "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty" affirmed the importance of evidence-based methods in economic research and policy. Duflo's status as only the second woman to receive the Nobel in Economics also brought renewed attention to questions of gender representation in the profession.

Her books, Poor Economics and Good Economics for Hard Times, have reached audiences far beyond the academic community, contributing to broader public understanding of the causes of and potential solutions to poverty. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Duflo is the seventh most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses, indicating her influence on the education of future economists.

Duflo's ongoing engagement with policy debates—through her institutional roles, public lectures, and written work—continues to shape discussions about how best to address poverty, inequality, and social exclusion in both developing and developed countries.