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Abhijit Banerjee
Finance & Economics
Abhijit Banerjee is an Indian American economist whose work uses experimental evidence to examine poverty and inform strategies for alleviating it.
Biography
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, born in 1961, is an Indian American economist and the Lemann Foundation Professor in Economics at the University of Zurich. He co-founded and co-directs the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, an MIT-based research center that promotes scientific evidence in poverty alleviation strategies.
Banerjee and Esther Duflo pioneered the use of randomized controlled trials in development economics. Their work examines assumptions underlying efforts to help people living in poverty, including claims about microfinance and schooling. In 2019, Banerjee shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. His academic affiliations include membership in the National Academy of Sciences and fellowships in the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Books by Abhijit Banerjee
Poor Economics
Poor Economics examines poverty and efforts to alleviate it through evidence from randomized controlled trials. Banerjee and Duflo challenge assumptions about microfinance, schooling, and daily life in poverty, emphasizing the risks poor people face without protections routinely available to more affluent people.