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Esther DufloFrench economist
Date of Birth: 25.10.1972
Country:  France |
Content:
Biography of Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo is a French economist currently serving as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she teaches development economics and focuses on poverty reduction.
Recognition and Awards
Esther Duflo has received numerous accolades for her contributions to the field of economics. She was listed among the "100 most influential thinkers of modern times" by Foreign Policy magazine in both 2008 and 2010. The Economist has recognized her as one of the top eight young economists in the world. In 2003, she co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, an academic center focused on reducing poverty. In 2009, she became a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, often referred to as a "genius grant." In 2010, Duflo was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given to economists under 40 who have made significant contributions to economic thought. She also became the first recipient of the Calvó-Armengol International Prize, awarded every two years by the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics to young researchers for their contributions to the theory and understanding of social interaction mechanisms.
Early Life and Education
Esther Duflo was born on October 25, 1972. She completed her secondary education at Lycée Albert Camus in Bois-Colombes, Île-de-France. She then attended the preparatory class at Lycée Henri IV in Paris. Initially studying history at the École normale supérieure, she volunteered for non-governmental organizations such as 'Éclaireuses et Éclaireurs unionistes de France'. Following the advice of Thomas Piketty, she pursued applied economics. In 1994, Duflo obtained a Master's degree in history and economics, with a dissertation on the history of the first five-year plan in the Soviet Union. She also worked with American economist Jeffrey Sachs and his French colleague Daniel Cohen. In 1999, Duflo joined the economics faculty at MIT as a professor after completing her doctoral dissertation at the same institution. At the age of 29, she was promoted to adjunct professor in 2002. She spent a year at Princeton University in 2003 and returned to MIT in 2004, becoming a tenured professor and the youngest faculty member to receive such an honor.
Research and Contributions
Esther Duflo's primary research focus is on development economics, with an emphasis on health, education, gender, politics, combating corruption, and access to credit. She has been instrumental in promoting field experiments as a crucial methodological tool for establishing causal relationships in economics. Alongside Abhijit Banerjee, Dean Karlan, Michael Kremer, John A. List, and Sendhil Mullainathan, Duflo played a key role in advancing the use of field experiments in economic research. In 2003, she received the Elaine Bennett Research Prize from the American Economic Association, recognizing her outstanding discoveries in economics made by women under the age of 40. In 2005, Le Monde awarded her as the "best young French economist." In February 2010, Duflo received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. She serves as the inaugural editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics and is also a member of the editorial board for the Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Development Economics, and the Annual Review of Economics. Additionally, Duflo writes a monthly column for the French newspaper Libération.
