Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo is a French-American development economist who shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to fighting global poverty. She co-founded MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which promotes randomized trials to test social policy, and in 2026 joined the University of Zurich as Lemann Foundation Professor. Her earlier honors include the John Bates Clark Medal.