Abhijit Banerjee: All you need to know about the Nobel Prize laureate

The Nobel Prize in Economics for the year 2018-19 was awarded to Indian-origin Economist Abhijit Banerjee, Michael Kremer, and Esther Duflo respectively. Abhijit and 2 others received the prestigious prize "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo also became the 6th couple to have received the Nobel Prize together. 

The Nobel Committee announced the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics on their official Twitter handle

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Personal Life:

The Indian origin Nobel Laureate was born on February 21, 1961, in Kolkata to Nirmala Banerjee, a professor of economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, and Dipak Banerjee, a professor and the head of the Department of Economics at Presidency College, Calcutta. Abhijit Banerjee is married to Esther Duflo who has also been awarded the Nobel honour in the field of Economics. 

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Alma Mater:

As a student, Abhijit Banerjee attended the South Point School and Presidency College in Kolkata. He completed his B.S. degree in economics in 1981 from Presidency College. He is also a 1983 pass out of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. Banerjee went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in the year 1988.

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Career:

Abhijit Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also known as MIT. He has also taught at Harvard University and Princeton University respectively. Abhijit Banerjee was a recipient of the inaugural Infosys Prize in the category of social sciences (economics). 

• 2012: Abhijit shared the Gerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Business Book with co-author and now his wife Esther Duflo for their book Poor Economics.

• 2013: He was named by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to a panel of experts tasked with updating the Millennium Development Goals after 2015 (their expiration date).
• 2014: Banerjee received the Bernhard-Harms-Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
• 2019: He delivered Export-Import Bank Of India's 34th Commencement Day Annual Lecture on Redesigning Social Policy

Books:

Abhijit Banerjee has authored multiple books such as Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, Volatility And Growth, A Short History of Poverty Measurements, and more. 

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