Nobel Prize for Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer

It was great news this week that the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (aka Nobel Prize in Economics) was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), Esther Duflo (MIT), and Michael Kremer (Harvard), "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty". The prize announcement is here, and here is a longer summary of their work, from the awarding committee.

The coverage online has been overwhelmingly positive, and for good reason. Their work in using rigorous randomised controlled trials (RCTs) has become the gold standard method in much of development economics. David McKenzie provides an excellent summary of what is special about this award. There are also a couple of great articles on The Conversation this week, by Arnab Bhattacharjee and Mark Schaffer (Heriot-Watt University), and by Gabriela D'Souza (Monash University).

I have to admit that I was a little surprised by this award. I know they have been among many people's picks for a Nobel Prize for the last few years, but I honestly thought it too soon. Esther Duflo becomes the youngest person (at 46 years) to win the prize for economics. Duflo also becomes only the second women (after Elinor Ostrom in 2009) to win the award, and that is only one tiny step towards redressing the gender imbalance in economics.

I haven't used much of the awardees' work in my current teaching, but when I was teaching graduate development economics a few years ago, I included RCTs and impact evaluations as part of the topic coverage. In my current ECONS102 class, I also refer to Michael Kremer's alternative view on intellectual property, that following a successful invention, the government purchases the patent and places it in the public domain, thereby reducing the problems associated with creating monopolies for patented products that have high social benefits.

Finally, the book Poor Economics, by Banerjee and Duflo, has been sitting on my to-be-read pile for far too long. It will be accelerated closer to the top of the pile, and you can expect a review from me before too much longer.

A welcome award, and much deserved!