Esther Duflo, a contributor to the field of microfinance research, has been awarded the John Bates Clark Medal [1]. The award, which is generally considered to be one of the most prestigious prizes in the field, is given to an economist in the US under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Previous winners of the John Bates Clark Medal include Milton Friedman, who was a professor at the Chicago School of Economics and was an economic advisor to US President Ronald Reagan; Paul Krugman, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times Newspaper and a professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University; and Lawrence Summers, the current director of US President Obama’s National Economic Council [2]. Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT and a founder and director of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), located in the US state of Massachusetts, which conducts randomized trials of policy interventions in the developing world [3].
Duflo’s most recent paper, “The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation,” examines the impact of introducing microcredit in Hyderabad, India. For a more detailed analysis of the paper, please see the MicroCapital Paper Wrap-up [4]. In addition, while at J-PAL, Esther Duflo has studied cash payments to encourage school attendance in Morocco, health insurance and microcredit in India and retirement-plan participation in the United States.
By Conner Brannen, Research Assistant
Additional Resources:
[1] “Providing Health Insurance through Microfinance Networks in Rural Karnataka, India” by Abhiji Banerjee, Esther Dunflo and Richard Hornbeck, J-PAL, 2007, http://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/providing-health-insurance-through-microfinance-networks-rural-karnataka-india
[2] MICROCAPITAL STORY: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and Esther Duflo of MIT, Dean Karlan of Yale Write New York Times Article Entitled “The Role of Microfinance: https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-abhijit-vinayak-banerjee-and-esther-duflo-of-mit-dean-karlan-of-yale-write-new-york-times-article-entitled-the-role-of-microfinance/#more-4258
[3] MICROCAPITAL STORY: The Economist Magazine Reviews Studies Of The Impact Of Microfinance By The Poverty Action Lab: https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-story-the-economist-magazine-reviews-studies-of-the-impact-of-microfinance-by-the-poverty-action-lab/
Bibliography:
[1] The Chronicle of Higher Education April 23, 2010
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Economics-Prize-Goes-to/23416/
[2] American Economic Association (AEA)
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/honors_awards/clark_medal.htm
[3] MIT Department of Economics
http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/eduflo/
[4] MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence From a Randomized Evaluation, by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster, and Cynthia Kinnan: https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-paper-wrap-up-the-miracle-of-microfinance-evidence-from-a-randomized-evaluation-by-abhijit-banerjeey-esther-duoz-rachel-glennersterx-and-cynthia-kinnan/
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