In July 2026, Abhijit Banerjee and his wife, Esther Duflo, will join the University of Zurich to establish a new center for development economics. The Lemann Center for Development, Education, and Public Policy is funded by a 26 million franc donation from the Lemann Foundation . While taking on this new role, the couple will maintain part-time positions at MIT , continuing their work at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.
Bengali roots and a family in academiaAbhijit Banerjee was born in Mumbai to a Bengali father and a Marathi mother. His father, Dipak Banerjee, taught economics at Presidency College in Calcutta, while his mother, Nirmala Banerjee, was a professor at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences. From an early age, Banerjee showed a quiet determination in his studies and a curiosity that spanned subjects as diverse as literature, history, and mathematics.
He began his higher education at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, intending to study mathematics, but after a week, he transferred to Presidency College to pursue economics. There, he completed his BSc (Honours) in Economics in 1981, taking classes from his father as well as from noted economist Mihir Rakshit. Afterward, he enrolled in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, where he earned his MA in Economics in 1983. During his time at JNU, he studied under Anjan Mukherjee and Krishna Bharadwaj, focusing on the history of economic thought and development issues.
Banerjee then applied to PhD programs in the United States. He was accepted to Harvard University , making history as one of the first students from JNU to gain admission there. At Harvard, he worked under Eric Maskin and focused his dissertation on the economics of information. He earned his PhD in 1988 and began a career that would blend rigorous theoretical study with real-world development challenges.
Academic career and researchAfter earning his PhD from Harvard in 1988, Abhijit Banerjee began teaching at Princeton University . He spent a few years there before moving to Harvard, and in 1993, he joined MIT. At MIT, he found a place where research and teaching could meet in a meaningful way. He focused on understanding poverty and figuring out what policies actually made a difference in people’s lives. For Banerjee, economics was never just about theories on paper—it was about testing ideas in the real world.
In 2003, together with Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan, he co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, known as J-PAL. The lab set out to answer a simple but important question: which programs really help the poor? They used randomised controlled trials, similar to medical studies, to measure the impact of interventions. From health campaigns to educational programs, J-PAL’s research began to show governments and organizations which strategies worked and which did not, reshaping the way development programs were designed around the world.
Nobel Memorial Prize and moreBanerjee’s work has always been rooted in practical solutions. In India, he and Duflo ran experiments to improve vaccination rates and to support schools with teaching assistants.
Recognition for this work came in 2019 when Banerjee, Duflo, and Michael Kremer received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The prize acknowledged not only their rigorous research but also their ability to bridge the gap between economics and everyday life, showing how careful study could lead to tangible improvements in society.
Even now, Banerjee continues to shape development economics. He advises governments, serves on advisory boards, and collaborates with organisations in India and around the world. From his early years in Mumbai to decades of research at MIT and now taking on a global center, his journey shows how economics can be applied to real problems. It is a story of curiosity, persistence, and the drive to make policies work for people, not just for theory.
Bengali roots and a family in academiaAbhijit Banerjee was born in Mumbai to a Bengali father and a Marathi mother. His father, Dipak Banerjee, taught economics at Presidency College in Calcutta, while his mother, Nirmala Banerjee, was a professor at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences. From an early age, Banerjee showed a quiet determination in his studies and a curiosity that spanned subjects as diverse as literature, history, and mathematics.
He began his higher education at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, intending to study mathematics, but after a week, he transferred to Presidency College to pursue economics. There, he completed his BSc (Honours) in Economics in 1981, taking classes from his father as well as from noted economist Mihir Rakshit. Afterward, he enrolled in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, where he earned his MA in Economics in 1983. During his time at JNU, he studied under Anjan Mukherjee and Krishna Bharadwaj, focusing on the history of economic thought and development issues.
Banerjee then applied to PhD programs in the United States. He was accepted to Harvard University , making history as one of the first students from JNU to gain admission there. At Harvard, he worked under Eric Maskin and focused his dissertation on the economics of information. He earned his PhD in 1988 and began a career that would blend rigorous theoretical study with real-world development challenges.
Academic career and researchAfter earning his PhD from Harvard in 1988, Abhijit Banerjee began teaching at Princeton University . He spent a few years there before moving to Harvard, and in 1993, he joined MIT. At MIT, he found a place where research and teaching could meet in a meaningful way. He focused on understanding poverty and figuring out what policies actually made a difference in people’s lives. For Banerjee, economics was never just about theories on paper—it was about testing ideas in the real world.
In 2003, together with Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan, he co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, known as J-PAL. The lab set out to answer a simple but important question: which programs really help the poor? They used randomised controlled trials, similar to medical studies, to measure the impact of interventions. From health campaigns to educational programs, J-PAL’s research began to show governments and organizations which strategies worked and which did not, reshaping the way development programs were designed around the world.
Nobel Memorial Prize and moreBanerjee’s work has always been rooted in practical solutions. In India, he and Duflo ran experiments to improve vaccination rates and to support schools with teaching assistants.
Recognition for this work came in 2019 when Banerjee, Duflo, and Michael Kremer received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The prize acknowledged not only their rigorous research but also their ability to bridge the gap between economics and everyday life, showing how careful study could lead to tangible improvements in society.
Even now, Banerjee continues to shape development economics. He advises governments, serves on advisory boards, and collaborates with organisations in India and around the world. From his early years in Mumbai to decades of research at MIT and now taking on a global center, his journey shows how economics can be applied to real problems. It is a story of curiosity, persistence, and the drive to make policies work for people, not just for theory.
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