Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to 3 for “fighting poverty”

The Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to AbhijitBanerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for "fighting poverty", theSwedish academy announced today.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in a press release,said the trio's "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty hasconsiderably improved our ability to fight global poverty."

In two decades, the trio's new experiment-based approach hastransformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field ofresearch, the academy said in the release.

Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee is an American citizen whileEsther Duflo is French-American. Michael Kremer is also from the US.

Abhijit Banerjee, 58, was born in India and has a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is a Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

Esther Duflo, 47, was born in Paris and is currently a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also has a Ph.D. from MIT. Mr. Banerjee and Ms. Duflo are married.

Michael Kremer, 55, is a professor at Harvard University and has a Ph.D. from the university. The prize amount of 9 million Swedish krona will be shared equally between the three Laureates.

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, often with Michael Kremer, soon performed similar studies of other issues and in other countries. Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development economics, the academy said. The 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics was presented by Goran K Hansson, the Secretary-General of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.