Banerjee, Duflo, Kremer win Nobel Prize for Economics 2019

• Trio’s efforts were recognized for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
• Swedish committee says this year’s laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about fighting global poverty.
• The experimental research methods of scientists now entirely dominate development economics.

(Karachi) The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded Nobel Prize for Economics 2019 after recognizing Abhihit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

The Swedish committee stated that despite recent dramatic improvements, one of humanity’s most urgent issues is the reduction of global poverty, in all its forms. “More than 700 million people still subsist on extremely low incomes. Every year, around five million children under the age of five still die of diseases that could often have been prevented or cured with inexpensive treatments,” the committee maintained.

The members pointed out that half of the world’s children still leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills.

“This year’s Laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty,” the committee members said.

“In brief, it involves dividing this issue into smaller, more manageable, questions – for example, the most effective interventions for improving educational outcomes or child health. They have shown that these smaller, more precise, questions are often best answered via carefully designed experiments among the people who are most affected.”

In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and his colleagues demonstrated how powerful this approach can be, using field experiments to test a range of interventions that could improve school results in western Kenya.

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, often with Michael Kremer, performed similar studies of other issues and in other countries. Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development economics.