Indian-American economist Abhijit Banerjee was among the three recipients of the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Awarded by the Swedish Central Bank, Banerjee won it for his “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.
Born in Kolkata to economics professors, Banerjee completed his B.S. degree from Presidency College and pursued M.A. in economics from JNU. After obtaining a Ph.D from Harvard University, he focused his work on ‘development economics’ such as how to improve child health by performing studies in India and Kenya. As a result of the laureates’ studies, the Academy says over 5 million Indian children benefitted from remedial tutoring in schools.
Banerjee jointly won the prize with Esther Duflo, the only second woman to win Nobel Prize in Economics and Harvard University professor Michael Kremer Banerjee is also the recipient of Infosys Prize and was tasked by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to update the Millennium Development Goals.
