Abhijit Banerjee

Abhijit Banerjee is the the co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a research centre supporting scientifically informed policy-making to reduce global poverty. Prior to co-founding J-PAL in 2003 with Esther Duflo, Abhijit taught at MIT’s department of economics, where he is now the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, at Harvard University and at Princeton University. He is also scientific director of J-PAL Europe and is a member of J-PAL’s executive committee. He previously served as co-chair of J-PAL’s Education Sector.

A specialist in economic theory and development economics, Abhijit’s work evaluates effective policies to alleviate global poverty. He is the author and editor of numerous articles and books, including Making aid work, Poor economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty, co-authored with Esther Duflo, which won the Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year in 2011 and Good economics for hard times, which won the Deutscher Wirtschaftsbuchpreis Best Business Book of the Year in 2020.

In 2019, Abhijit was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics alongside Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. His work has also been recognised by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy Bernhard Harms Prize (2014), The Social Science Research Council Albert O. Hirschman Prize (2014), Gabarron International Award for Economics (2013), the Infosys Prize in Social Sciences and Economics (2009) and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Development Cooperation (2009).

Beyond economics, Abhijit’s work encompasses information theory, health, politics, film and food. He is the author of a collection of recipes, Cooking to save your life (2021) and he has directed two documentary films, The name of the disease (2006), which explores the experience of the poor and sick in rural India and The magnificent journey: Times and tales of democracy (2019), which chronicled the recent political history of democratic India.

Abhijit took a bachelor of science degree from the University of Calcutta in 1981, followed by a master’s from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, before obtaining his doctorate from Harvard University in 1988. He is a trustee of the British Museum and Save the Children USA, as well as co-chair of the World Bank’s global education evidence advisory panel. He formerly served on the United Nations secretary-general’s high-level panel of eminent persons on the post-2015 development agenda.

News

J-PAL co-founders celebrated among the Carnegie Corporation’s 2024 Class of Great Immigrants

The Inclusion Policy Lab’s massive ​effort ​to strengthen social inclusion in Spain with EUR 212 million funding from the European Union

J-PAL Africa, the City of Cape Town and Community Jameel launch new Water, Air and Energy Lab

Uzma Sulaiman and Abhijit Banerjee launch J-PAL's Water, Air and Energy Lab in Cape Town

Suket Dhir reflects on designing Abhijit Banerjee's outfit for the 2019 Nobel prize ceremony

How the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab has impacted 600 million lives in 20 years through its Nobel Prize-winning approach to poverty alleviation

Media

Nobel laureate discusses ways to alleviate global poverty

Rise of metascience: Turning science on itself

La ministra Saiz y el Nobel de Economía, Abhijit Banerjee, presentan los resultados del Laboratorio de Políticas de Inclusión

A revolution in helping Africa's poor: Cash with no strings attached

Lucknow lessons, and the maze of public relief

Sharbat times: Beyond just surviving ever hotter summers

Nobel Laureate from MIT discusses poverty reduction strategies

Cake love in the land of gulub jamun

Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel Prize in economics: ‘There are important things that cannot be solved just with a money transfer ’

UCT hosts Nobel laureate for lecture on universal basic income in the developing world

Excitement as Water, Air and Energy Lab launched in City

Water crisis: 'Fear factor' saved Cape Town and can work for Joburg, says mayor

Réduire leur consommation d'eau, le défi des habitants du Cap pour éviter la catastrophe en 2018

J-PAL Africa, the City of Cape Town and Community Jameel launch new Water, Air and Energy Lab

Igniting a beacon of innovation: The launch of the WAE Lab in Cape Town

Education department set to enlist phone tutoring from Nobel laureates' NGO

Framing the immigration issue

Международные эксперты обсудили прогресс Узбекистана в борьбе с бедностью

International experts discussed Uzbekistan’s progress in the fight against poverty

Jharkhand Governor felicitates 625 women graduating out of extreme poverty

Illustrating India’s complex environmental crises

Columna de María Paz Arzola: No repetir los errores de la reforma educacional

Herausforderungen in einer arbeitslosen KI-Gesellschaft, untersucht von MIT economist

One Chineej, many Chinas

AI 'work-free society' may not be happier, says Banerjee of MIT

Un laboratorio de evaluación de políticas para personas en exclusión y más cobertura del IMV: así son las prioridades de Inclusión

Elma Saiz anuncia que crearán un laboratorio de evaluación de políticas dirigidas a acompañar a personas en exclusión

Elma Saiz talks to Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee about the use of scientific evidence to improve social policies

Shifra e ditës: 10 ekonomistët me më tepër ndikim, të cilët ndryshuan historinë e botës

From gender inclusivity to climate change: Art exhibition explores ways to popularise policy discourse

Is economics broken?

Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo turn findings into fun – play, exhibition

Decode politics: First floated in 2019, Congress brings back NYAY — what is it?

Two decades of J-PAL: Revolutionising development economics through evidence-based solutions

‘If we want to remove extreme poverty... we must match it with financing’

Nina Singh takes charge as CISF’s first woman chief

Trailblazing academician cop, Nina Singh, becomes first woman CISF DG

Interview | Korea should prioritise raising quality of life over indiscriminate growth, argue economists

Cash grants catch on in international development world

Giving the poor a wodge of cash is better than dripping it out

How universal basic income would work best — and it might not be monthly cash payments, a Nobel prize winner's new research suggests

Memories of ma, and the sweet melange of ghonto

The first results from the world’s biggest basic income experiment

Madhur Jaffrey: The woman who gave the world Indian food

Comment savoir à qui donner ? Nos conseils pour être généreux et efficace, par Franck Ramus

Cooking for comfort in a crisis time

Are the rich getting richer?

The real Washington consensus

Gold, school stipends: Cong refines its welfarism pitch from Nyay to now

Pushing evidence-based policymaking for the poor

Wet dhotis, satin shirts and pujor bhog

Hong Kong Jockey Club’s philanthropy forum brings together global thought leaders to discuss solutions for fairer societies

Esther Duflo: «La philanthropie ne doit pas se substituer aux gouvernements locaux»

How Gujarat plans to make air polluters pay

Vers un come-back de la prix Nobel d'économie Esther Duflo en France?

Nobel laureate Michael Kremer praises education reforms in Andhra Pradesh

After Surat, emission trading scheme starts in Ahmedabad

Small bites and bit bets: The challenge of philanthropy

L’économiste Esther Duflo : « Il existe déjà énormément de marges d’action pour lutter contre la pauvreté »

Esther Duflo : « La lutte contre le réchauffement climatique est en retard de vingt ans par rapport à celle contre la pauvreté »

Esther Duflo : « Sur le fait d’aider les pauvres, nous sommes revenus à notre méfiance fondamentale »

How cynical leaders are whipping up nationalism to win and abuse power

Who will be awarded the next Nobel Prize in Economics?

Cultural capital, kabuli chana and college admissions

Plov: A pulao goes to Samarkand

Government has been counting India’s poor all wrong—it is ad hoc, arbitrary

Book Box | The secret lives of banks

Opinion | Cash transfers help more than the individual

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) hosts a symposium in Paris to 20 years of fighting poverty

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) hosts a symposium in Paris to celebrate its 20th anniversary

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab hosts a seminar in Paris

The Inclusion Policy Lab’s massive effort to strengthen social inclusion in Spain with EUR 212 million funding from the European Union