Duflo Esther

Esther Duflo

Public profile of Esther Duflo, born October 25, 1972 in Paris, France. A French-American economist, she is a professor at MIT and a co-founder/director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).

Basic Facts

• Birth: October 25, 1972, Paris, France
• Nationality: French-American
• Occupation: Economist, Professor at MIT
• Known for: Experimental approaches to evaluating anti-poverty policies

Career Highlights

• Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2019 (shared with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer) for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty
• Co-founder and former director of J-PAL, a network of researchers conducting randomized evaluations of public policies
• MacArthur Fellow (2005)
• Author of influential books on development economics, including Poor Economics (with Abhijit Banerjee) and Good Economics for Hard Times (with Banerjee)

Education and Academic Positions

Esther Duflo earned a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. She has held a faculty position at MIT since then, focusing on development economics and policy evaluation. Her early training also involved studies in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure.

Recent Projects and Research Focus

Her work centers on randomized evaluations of anti-poverty programs to identify what works in practice. Through J-PAL, researchers conduct impact assessments across health, education, nutrition, financial inclusion, and social protection in various countries, aiming to inform scalable policy design and governance. Recent and ongoing projects span multiple geographies and policy domains, emphasizing evidence-based approaches to poverty reduction.

Selected Publications

• Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (with Abhijit Banerjee)
• Good Economics for Hard Times (with Abhijit Banerjee)
• Numerous peer-reviewed articles on randomized controlled trials and development policy

News and Public Profiles

Key official profiles and news sources include:

• Nobel Prize biography
• MIT Economics profile
• J-PAL profile

Social Media and Public Presence

Public updates about Esther Duflo are primarily shared through official channels such as MIT News and J-PAL. There are no widely verified personal social media accounts publicly listed for her. For authoritative information, refer to the links above.