India-born Abhijit Banerjee among trio who wins Economics Nobel

A computer screen displays the co-winners (from left) Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer. Pic/AFP

Stockholm: Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." India-born Banerjee and French-American Duflo both work at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology while Kremer is at Harvard University. Duflo is the second woman and the youngest ever to win the economics prize.

The prize includes 9 million-kronor ($9,18,000) cash, a gold medal and a diploma. The winners will equally share the prize money. "The research conducted by this year's Laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field of research," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

They have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty, it added. Their "research findings - and those of the researchers following in their footsteps - have dramatically improved our ability to fight poverty in practice," it said. As a direct result of one of their studies, more than five million Indian children have benefitted from effective programmes of remedial tutoring in schools. Another example is the heavy subsidies for preventive healthcare that have been introduced in many countries, it added.

"Showing that it is possible for a woman to succeed and be recognised for success I hope is going to inspire many, many other women to continue working and many other men to give them the respect they deserve," Duflo said at a press conference soon after the announcement.

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