Esther Duflo

About the author

Born in Paris in 1972, Esther Duflo is a French-American economist whose work has reshaped how the world fights poverty. The Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT, she co-founded J-PAL, a research center that champions randomized controlled trials in policy evaluation — work that has influenced programs affecting more than 400 million people. In 2019, she received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences alongside Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

Since 2024, she also serves as president of the Paris School of Economics.