The many sides of Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee

Abhijit did his schooling from South Point School. After that, he graduated from Presidency College in Calcutta (BSc Economics) in the year 1981

On Monday, a nation rejoiced as Abhijit Banerjee won the Nobel Prize for Economics (2019) for his work towards alleviating global poverty. He won the prize with two others – wife Esther Duflo and fellow economist Michael Kremer. Let’s take a closer look at the man:

Personal life                

The Nobel Laureate was born in Mumbai to Nirmala Banerjee and Dipak Banerjee. He was first married to Dr. Arundhati Tuli Banerjee, with whom he had one child. The couple later divorced. In 2015, Abhijit tied the knot again to Esther Duflo.

Another interesting trivia about his life is that he was once imprisoned (and beaten up too) in Tihar jail for 10 days. It was during his tenure in JNU that this happened.

Education

Abhijit did his schooling from South Point School. After that, he graduated from Presidency College in Calcutta (BSc Economics) in the year 1981. He even did his Masters in Economics from Jawahar Lal Nehru University (1983) and was awarded a Ph. D. in Economics from Harvard (1988).

Work

Currently, Banerjee is working as a Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Masachussets Institute of Technology. Previously, he has also taught at Princeton and Harvard.

In 2003, Banerjee founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), along with Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan, and he remains one of its directors. He also served on the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The prize he received was courtesy some experiments he conducted on poverty stricken people in Kenya and India. In one such experiment, he proved that offering lentils (a form of intervention) helped encourage people to immunize their children. Along with fellow researchers, he’s fought for aid programs and illustrated how a wide range of problems – from illiteracy to unemployment – could be solved with simple interventions.

Abhijit and Esther

Esther Duflo (who also won the Nobel Prize) was Abhijit’s student initially and first saw him while attending a class on development economics. She later accompanied her professor on a trip to India, where Abhijit served as a guide. Esther loves India and even knows how to cook Indian food. She has Indian friends and a lot of her work is based in India. It is our sincere hope that the couple can continue to undertake groundbreaking work in the field of economics and their efforts can help improve the living conditions of the poor. 

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