Public Lecture: Poor Economics (Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo)

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo have worked with the poor in dozens of countries, trying to understand the specific problems that come with poverty and to find proven solutions. In this lecture, they argue that so much anti-poverty policy has failed over the years because of an inadequate understanding of poverty. The battle against poverty can be won, but it will take patience, careful thinking and a willingness to learn from evidence.

Abhijit Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. He is the recipient of many awards, including the inaugural Infosys Prize in 2009, and has been an honorary advisor to many organizations including the World Bank and the Government of India.

Esther Duflo is Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. She has received numerous honours and prizes and was recognized as one of the best eight young economists by the Economist, as one of the 100 most influential thinkers by Foreign Policy, and as one of the "forty under forty" most influential business leaders by Fortune magazine in 2010. In 2003, Banerjee and Duflo co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which they have been directing together ever since. J-PAL's mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence. J-PAL's work has won international recognition, including the inaugural BBVA "Frontier of Knowledge" award.

This event celebrated the publication of their new book Poor Economics; A Radical Rethinking of the way to Fight Global Poverty.

The event was live tweeted on the hashtag #lsepoverty