✦ Celebrity stories, facts and career updates. Explore F4U now →

Home › Biography › Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner)

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) biographyFeatured Biography

Image source: StarsUnfolded

Celebrities

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated October 4, 2026 • 3 min read

Quick Info

Date of birth25 October 1972

Age47 Years

BirthplaceParis, France

ProfessionEconomist

NationalityFrench and American

Marital statusMarried

SpouseAbhijit Banerjee

FamilyOne child; parents Michel Duflo and Violaine Duflo; sister Annie Duflo

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) Biography

Esther Duflo is a French-American economist known for her influential work in development economics and for sharing the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics. A Ph

Early life and background

Esther Duflo was born on 25 October 1972 in Paris, France. Raised in an academically oriented family—her father, Michel Duflo, is a mathematician, and her mother, Violaine Duflo, is a pediatrician—she grew up in Paris and attended Lycée Henri-IV. As an undergraduate she studied history and later added economics to her studies at École Normale Supérieure, where she earned maîtrise degrees in both history and economics in 1994. She went on to complete a master’s degree in economics at DELTA College in 1995 and received her PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1999.

Career

Duflo’s academic career took off immediately after her doctorate: she was hired by MIT as an assistant professor upon completing her PhD and was promoted to associate professor in 2002. She became one of the youngest academics to secure a tenured position at a university, earning tenure at the age of 29. Her research focuses on social and development economics, and she has supervised doctoral students who went on to careers in economics, including Dean Karlan, Rema Hanna, and Nancy Qian.

She has authored and co-authored several influential books. Titles listed among her popular works include a 2009 book on experimentation and poverty, a two-volume work on human development from 2010, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011), the two-volume Handbook of Field Experiments (2017), and Good Economics for Hard Times (2019). In addition to her research and books, she is the founding editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

Awards and honours

Duflo’s contributions to economics have been widely recognized. Early in her career she was named Best Young French Economist by Cercle des économistes (2005) and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009. She has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received numerous international distinctions, including the Calvó-Armengol International Prize (announced 2009, received 2010), the John Bates Clark Medal (2010), and a Gerald Loeb Award (2012). She was honored as an Officer of the French Order of Merit in 2013 and received the Infosys Prize in Social Science–Economics (2014). Further recognitions include the Princess of Asturias Social Sciences Award (2015) and the A.SK Social Sciences Award (2015). The pinnacle of these honors came in 2019 when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, shared with Michael Kremer and Abhijit Banerjee.

Public profile

Duflo holds dual French and American nationality. Her academic pedigree includes École Normale Supérieure, DELTA College, and MIT, where she was advised in her doctoral work by Abhijit Banerjee and Joshua Angrist. She is known for using randomized controlled trials and field experiments to study poverty and policy interventions. Her scholarship and public-facing books have earned broad recognition: she has appeared on lists such as Time’s 100 Most Influential People and has been named among top global thinkers by Foreign Policy and influential young economists by publications including The Economist and Fortune.

Personal life

Esther Duflo is married to economist Abhijit Banerjee. The couple have one child, born in 2012. Her sister, Annie Duflo, is also an economist.

Latest updates

In 2019 Duflo received the Nobel Prize in Economics, becoming the second woman to win the prize and the youngest woman recipient at the time. She continues to be active in research, writing, and editing work in applied and development economics.

Editorial Review and Sources

This F4U profile is written from publicly available career and profile information, then reviewed for clarity before publication. If you spot an outdated detail about Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner), send the page URL and a reliable correction source to f4udotin@gmail.com.

Reference context: StarsUnfolded
◈

Recent Work

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

A widely read book examining poverty and policy through empirical research and field experiments.

2011
Handbook of Field Experiments, Volume 1 & 2

Edited volumes compiling field experiment research relevant to development and policy.

2017
Good Economics for Hard Times

A book addressing major economic challenges and policy responses.

2019
✦

Career Highlights

  1. Shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics
  2. Won the John Bates Clark Medal in 2010
  3. Received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009
  4. Founding editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
  5. Named among Time’s 100 Most Influential People
Reviewed by F4U Editorial Desk

F4U profile pages are prepared from public career information, checked for readability, and updated when reliable correction sources are shared with the editorial team.

?

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) born?

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) was born on 25 October 1972.

What is Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) known for?

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) is known for economist.

What is Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner)’s marital status?

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner)'s marital status is listed as Married.

Who is Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) married to?

Esther Duflo (Nobel Winner) is publicly listed as married to Abhijit Banerjee.