The character arc of Esther Duflo

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born on 25 October 1972 in Paris. Between then and now sit the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1994, a master's in 1995, an MIT doctorate in 1999, a full professorship in 2003, J-PAL founded in the same year, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009, the John Bates Clark Medal in 2010, Poor Economics in 2011, the Nobel in 2019 and the presidency of the Paris School of Economics in 2024. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Esther Duflo?

She asked whether it actually worked.

She read history and economics at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, finishing in 1994, took a master's at the Paris School of Economics in 1995 and a doctorate in economics at MIT in 1999. She was an assistant professor at MIT from 1999, spent a year at Princeton, and became a full professor in 2003 at thirty, which is very fast indeed.

The work that made her name is a change in method rather than a new theory. Rather than argue from models about what would reduce poverty, she and her colleagues broke the question into small pieces and ran randomised controlled trials on each one, the way a drug is tested. Does a free bed net get used? Does a deworming programme keep children in school? The answers were often not what anybody had assumed.

In 2003 she co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, which now runs trials across dozens of countries. Poor Economics, written with Abhijit Banerjee, came in 2011, and Good Economics for Hard Times in 2019. She won the Elaine Bennett Research Prize in 2002, a MacArthur Fellowship and the Calvo-Armengol Prize in 2009, the John Bates Clark Medal in 2010 and the Infosys Prize in 2014. In 2019 she shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer, at forty six. She has been president of the Paris School of Economics since 2024.

The moments

Esther Duflo's timeline.

The 1990s

Jun 1994

History and economics

Milestone, and it changed her direction. History first, which is unusual for an economist and shows in the questions.

Jun 1999

An MIT doctorate

Milestone, and it changed everything. A doctorate and a faculty post in one year, at twenty six.

The 2000s

Jun 2002

The Bennett Prize

Milestone. A first prize, for research done before she was thirty.

1 Jun 2002

Model it, or test it

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: run the trials, taken, or argue from models. J-PAL now runs trials across dozens of countries, and the method won the Nobel Prize in 2019.

Sep 2003

A professorship, and a lab

Milestone, and it changed everything. Full professor at thirty, and a laboratory built to test what actually helps.

Jun 2006

The trials go out

Milestone, and it changed everything. Break the question into pieces and test each one, the way a drug is tested.

22 Sep 2009

A MacArthur Fellowship

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Two awards in one year, ten years after the doctorate.

The 2010s

23 Apr 2010

The Clark Medal

Milestone, and it changed everything. The medal for the best American economist under forty. It is a short list of people.

26 Apr 2011

Poor Economics

Milestone, and it changed everything. The trials, written up for people who do not read journals.

Nov 2014

The Infosys Prize

Milestone. Recognised in the country a great deal of the fieldwork was done in.

14 Oct 2019

The Nobel, at forty six

Milestone, and it changed everything. The Nobel at forty six, for insisting that a question about poverty can be answered with a trial.

The 2020s

~2024

President in Paris

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Back to the school she took her master's at, running it.

The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is a habit of asking whether a thing actually works before spending a country's money on it, which sounds obvious and was not being done.

What she wrote

Books by Esther Duflo

2011
Poor Economics
Written with Abhijit Banerjee. A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty, built on trials rather than on models.
2019
Good Economics for Hard Times
Written with Abhijit Banerjee, and published in the year they shared the Nobel Prize.

Your turn

Every line draws a unique story.

Hers changed the method rather than the theory, and the method is what won. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.

Step through

Draw my own line Explore Character Arc

Esther Duflo: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What is Esther Duflo's character arc?

She read history before economics, took an MIT doctorate at twenty six and a full professorship at thirty, built a laboratory to test what actually reduces poverty rather than argue about it, and shared the Nobel Prize at forty six.

What did Esther Duflo win the Nobel Prize for?

For an experimental approach to alleviating global poverty, shared in 2019 with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer. The method breaks a large question into small ones and tests each with a randomised trial.

What is Esther Duflo's J-PAL?

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which she co-founded at MIT in 2003. It runs randomised field trials across dozens of countries to find out which interventions actually work and which only sound as though they should.

What is Poor Economics by Esther Duflo?

Her book of 2011, written with Abhijit Banerjee, which sets out what the trials found for readers who do not open journals. Good Economics for Hard Times followed from the same pair in 2019.

Where did Esther Duflo study?

The Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, where she read history and economics until 1994, the Paris School of Economics for a master's in 1995, and MIT, where she took her doctorate in economics in 1999.

Has Esther Duflo won the Clark Medal?

Yes, in 2010. The John Bates Clark Medal goes to the American economist under forty judged to have contributed most to the field, and it arrived in 2010, ahead of the Nobel Prize she shared in 2019.

What does Esther Duflo do now?

She is a full professor at MIT, co-directs the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and has been president of the Paris School of Economics since 2024, which is the school she took her own master's at.

Where does this timeline of Esther Duflo's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Esther Duflo isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

More character arcs

Lives that rhyme with her.

Every Character, A to Z

Sources

Esther Duflo, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 2019.
American Economic Association, John Bates Clark Medal, 2010.