Esther Duflo

Lemann Foundation Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich; co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Chair of Poverty and Public Policy at the Collège de France, Paris. Influential in the modern renaissance of development economics. Proponent of field experiments and program evaluation in the context of development policy. Specific contributions include measurement of the return to education in developing nations, the effects of transfer programs on resource distribution within households, and the impact of political institutions on policy outcomes.