The Nobel Prize in Economics attributed to a Franco-Indo-American trio

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded on Monday to Franco-American Esther Duflo, Indian Abhijit Banerjee and American Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to fighting poverty.

"The research conducted by this year's winners has dramatically improved our ability to fight global poverty, and in just two decades their new experience-based approach has transformed the development economy, which is now an area of flourishing research, "the committee wrote in a statement.

Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, who co-wrote "Rethinking Poverty," voted "Business Book of the Year" in 2011 by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs, teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Michael Kremer is a professor at Harvard.

The 46-year-old Franco-American is the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics.

"This shows that it is possible for a woman to succeed and to be recognized for her success, which I hope will inspire many more women to continue working and many more men to give them the respect they deserve. 'they deserve,' she said at a press conference, according to the Nobel Institute.

Co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Laboratory for Action against Poverty, she graduated from Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and obtained her PhD in Economics at MIT in 1999, reads on the website of the American Institute. .

Laureate of numerous distinctions, including the Princess of Asturias Prize for Social Sciences (2015), the Infosys Prize (2014), the John Bates Clark Medal (2010), she is also editor-in-chief of the American Economic Review and member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, as well as the British Academy.

The economy prize, which comes with a reward of nine million crowns (830,000 euros), is the last of the distinctions awarded by the Nobel Committee.

(Niklas Pollard and Simon Johnson, Bertrand Boucey and Jean-Philippe Lefief for the French service, edited by Jean-Michel Belot)