On Monday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer had won the 2019 Nobel Prize for economics "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty". The research conducted by them has considerably improved the 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, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Here are some interesting facts about the Indian-origin Abhijit Banerjee.
Banerjee, 58, was educated at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D in 1988. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MIT, in a release, said the 'work of Duflo and Banerjee has emphasised the use of field experiments in research, to bring the principles of laboratory-style randomised, controlled trials to empirical economics'.
Announcing her appointment, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde hailed the Mysore-born Gopinath as "one of the world's outstanding economists with impeccable academic credentials, a proven track record of intellectual leadership and extensive international experience".
Amartya Sen was the other Presidency alumni to win the Economics Nobel. Banerjee won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize along with two others - his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer on Monday "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."
A programme that endeavours to graduate the poorest people could have seminal implications for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
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