Abhijit Banerjee

Abhijit Banerjee is renowned for his significant contributions to the world of economics, particularly through the co-founding of Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab alongside his wife, Esther Duflo and colleague, Michael Kremer, which promotes the use of solid, scientific evidence to identify ways to alleviate poverty and improve peoples’ quality of life. As a result of their work, the trio received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019. As a speaker, Abhijit delivers enriching sessions that focus on economic policy and how society can change for the better.

Abhijit’s career began in the early 1980s, when he graduated with a BSc in Economics from University of Calcutta, an MA in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. This led him to becoming an Economics professor at Princeton University between 1988 and 1992, going on to teach economics at Harvard University between 1991, before joining the teaching faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1993. A year later, he had fast received well-deserved recognition in the form of his Sloan Research Fellowship, an honour reserved for early-career researchers with the potential to revolutionise their fields. In 2000 came his Guggenheim Fellowship for exceptional capacity for productive scholarship.

By 2003, Abhijit was Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT, as well as co-founded Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). He also co-authored two books with Esther, Poor Economics (2011), which received the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and Good Economics for Hard Times (2019). Furthermore, Abhijit has received recognition including the Infosys Prize in Social Sciences (Economics) (2009) and the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement (2022).

Abhijit Banerjee is a highly in-demand speaker for his deep expertise, which he combines with his first-hand experiences, captivating storytelling, wit, and actionable insights on how to help fight for an improved world. He translates complex economic research so that it can be applied in the real-world, making him a truly compelling and influential speaker when it comes to the field of economics.