Esther Duflo appointed President of the Paris School of Economics

Esther Duflo is a Research Fellow for CEPR's Public Economics and Development Economics programmes. She is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In her research, she seeks to understand the economic lives of the poor, with the aim to help design and evaluate social policies. Esther Duflo graduated in history and economics from the École normale supérieure - PSL and PSE.

Duflo has received numerous academic honors and prizes including the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (with co-Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer). With Abhijit Banerjee, she wrote Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2011. Duflo is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Speaking on her appointment, Esther Duflo said: “It is not without emotion that I take over the presidency of PSE, a unique institution which has transformed the face of economics in Paris, in a house where I grew up and discovered the economy. Much has already been accomplished so that, from six founding institutions, a coherent whole has emerged, which has remarkable power in teaching, research, and public life. With the management team, I hope to be able to preserve and bring this ensemble to life, and continue to anchor it in the landscape of higher education and research in France and around the world."

Read the full announcement on the PSE website here.