Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo received the 2019 prize in Economic Sciences. This profile brings together the official award record and attributed background on the economist’s work and career.
Personal and professional profile
- Name
- Esther Duflo [1]
- Full name
- Esther Duflo [2]
- Birth date
- 1972-10-25 [2]
- Birthplace
- Paris, France [2]
- Education
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology; École Normale Supérieure; Lycée Henri-IV; Paris School of Economics; School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences [3]
- Fields / occupation
- economist; researcher; university teacher [3]
- Prize
- Economic Sciences · 2019 [2]
- Research recognized
- for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty [2]
- Prize share
- 1/3 [2]
- Affiliation at the award
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) [2]
- Institutions in career record
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Collège de France [3]
Research, education and career background
Esther Caroline Duflo, FBA (French: [ɛstɛʁ dyflo]; born 25 October 1972) is a French-American economist, and the Lemann Foundation Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Zurich (UZH). 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". [4]
In addition to her academic appointment, Duflo is the co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), an MIT-based research center promoting the use of randomized controlled trials in policy evaluation. As of 2020, more than 400 million people had been impacted by programs tested by J-PAL affiliated researchers. Since 2024, Duflo has also been the president of the Paris School of Economics alongside her appointment at MIT. 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. [4]
Duflo 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. Her research focuses on the microeconomics of development and spans topics such as household behavior, education, financial inclusion, political economy, gender, and health. Prior to receiving the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Duflo was awarded the Calvó-Armengol International Prize (2019), the Elaine Bennett Research Prize (2002) and the John Bates Clark Medal (2010) by the American Economic Association. [4]
Together with Abhijit Banerjee, Duflo is the co-author of Poor Economics and Good Economics for Hard Times, published in April 2011 and November 2019, respectively. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Duflo is the seventh most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses. [4]
Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Esther Duflo, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.
Award and academic affiliation
The official Nobel record dates the Economic Sciences award to 2019 and lists Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the affiliation at the time. [2]
An affiliation attached to an award describes that point in the person’s career; it does not establish a current appointment. [2]
Education and career timeline
Source-supported connections
Frequently asked questions
When did Esther Duflo receive the prize in Economic Sciences?
The official award record gives the year as 2019. [2]
Which institution was Esther Duflo affiliated with at the time of the Economic Sciences award?
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This is the award-time affiliation. [2]
Esther Duflo connection map
Select a node to inspect the relationship and source.
Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.
Sources and review dates
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
- Wikipedia contributors — Esther Duflo (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.