Online lecture by Esther Duflo "Good Economics for Hard Times"

Topic

Inequality, social insecurity, environment, migration, and slowing economic growth are among the main problems of today's global economy. However, in the public discussion and among scientists, these problems are often seen quite differently. For example, contrary to popular belief, economists know that wages of migrants in a new place of life increase strongly, while the local population does not see their wages fall at all, and wages of those who decide to stay in their villages in a poor country also increases. What myths are there today related to economic policy? And what solutions to the most pressing economic problems do modern researchers have?

About the lecturer

Esther Duflo is the 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). She received a PhD in Economics from MIT. 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 has received numerous academic honors and prizes including 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (with co-Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer) "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".