Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a co-founder and director of the Poverty Action Lab, Research Associate at the National Bureau for Economic Research, and on the board of directors of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). She is also the co-director of the CEPR Development Economics programme and editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. She received her undergraduate degree in history and economics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) in 1994, a master’s in economics from DELTA (Paris) in 1995, and her Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1999. She is the recipient of the Bronze Medal from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (2005), Le Monde’s Cercle des économistes Best Young French Economist Prize (2005), and the Elaine Bennett Prize for Research (2003). Duflo specializes in development economics and the design and evaluation of effective anti-poverty policy. She has studied household behavior, educational choice and returns to education, decentralization, industrial organization in developing countries, and credit constraints.
Content by Esther Duflo
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Data Item
Data: Third-party environmental auditing
In many regulated markets, private, third-party auditors are chosen and paid by the firms that they audit, potentially creating a conflict of interest. This article reports on a two-year field experiment in the Indian state of Gujarat that sought to curb such a conflict by altering the market structure for environmental audits of industrial plants to incentivize accurate...
1 Mar 2019
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Data Item
Data: Evaluation of the impact of microfinance in rural areas of Morocco
Microcredit has rapidly expanded in the past years, providing access to financial services to a large population previously excluded from the financial system. However, whether it helps the poor has been a subject of intense debate on which, until very recently, there was no rigorous evidence. This paper reports the results of a randomized experiment designed to measure the...
1 Mar 2019
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Publication - Policy Brief
Benefits and costs of road traffic congestion pricing: Evidence from Bangalore
Chronic road traffic congestion is ubiquitous in developing countries. Congestion pricing is a theoretically appealing and technologically feasible policy, yet to date has not implemented in developing countries. This brief examines an experiment with congestion pricing pilot policies to learn how commuter change their driving behaviour due to charges, focusing on...
28 Aug 2018 | Gabriel Kreindler, Esther Duflo, Benjamin Olken
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Project
Smart congestion pricing: Testing travel incentives to reduce congestion in Bangalore
This project will use a novel data collection strategy using smartphones and a field experiment to provide evidence on traffic congestion inefficiencies in Bangalore, India. It will also evaluate policy levers to counter congestion using monetary incentives and information. Severe peak-time traffic congestion is endemic in large cities in developing countries, both on...
8 Nov 2016 | Gabriel Kreindler, Esther Duflo, Benjamin Olken
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Project
The impact of short-term driving restrictions on mobility and traffic congestion in Delhi
Driving restrictions based on license plate numbers are a popular yet little understood policy in large cities in developing countries. This project used high frequency surveys to measure how drivers responded to such a policy in Delhi. Delhi's Odd-Even policy proved effective in reducing traffic congestion. However, many drivers switched to other private...
7 Apr 2016 | Esther Duflo, Gabriel Kreindler, Benjamin Olken
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Publication - Project Memo
Does improved regulatory enforcement reduce industrial pollution? (Project Memo)
9 Feb 2016 | Michael Greenstone, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande
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Multimedia Item - Video
Public Lecture (video): Tackling extreme poverty through programmes targeting the world's ultra-poor
17 Dec 2015
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Multimedia Item - Audio
Public Lecture (audio): Tackling extreme poverty through programmes targeting the world's ultra-poor
11 Dec 2015
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Project
Enhancing local public service delivery: Experimental evidence on the national rural employment guarantee scheme in Bihar
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS) is among the largest social protection programs in the world. In 2009-2010, administrative sources reported that MG-NREGS provided employment to 53.5 million households. Despite its impressive scale, in some states, including some of the poorest States of India like Bihar, the scheme appears to fall...
10 Oct 2014 | Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande
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Project
Diffusion of Technologies within Social Networks: Evidence from a Coffee Training Program in Rwanda
Coffee is one of Rwanda’s major exports but coffee production is dominated by small producers. Finding ways to improve yields could help small‐scale farmers shift out of subsistence farming into more profitable activities. Assuming that knowledge deficits are the main hindrance to the adoption of productivity‐enhancing agronomic practices, training on agricultural...
4 Sep 2014 | Esther Duflo, Tavneet Suri
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Project
Estimating the Benefit to Secondary School in Africa: Experimental Evidence from Ghana
Some researchers argue that secondary education is likely to have a much larger impact than primary education on long-run earnings, health, fertility, gender equality, and civic and political participation. But expanding secondary education is a significantly more expensive undertaking than providing free primary education. Working with the government of Ghana, this...
4 Sep 2014 | Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, Pascaline Dupas
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Publication - Working Paper
Truth-Telling by Third-Party Auditors and the Response of Polluting Firms
1 Oct 2013 | Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan
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Publication - Working Paper
Truth-Telling by Third-Party Auditors and the Response of Polluting Firms
1 Oct 2013 | Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan
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Publication - Policy Brief
Inducing Indian Plants to Abate Pollution (Policy Brief)
1 Jan 2013 | Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan
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Project
Does improved regulatory enforcement reduce industrial pollution? An evaluation of public and private sector approaches
Industrial regulation in India has a history of heavyhandedness, with industrial licensing and labour regulations impeding economic growth Study assesses how technology and market mechanisms can support environmental regulation policies that can minimise the social costs of energy consumption The study found that reforms for auditor independence can...
1 Apr 2012 | Michael Greenstone, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan
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Publication - Policy Brief
Diffusion of Technologies Within Social Networks (Policy Brief)
1 Mar 2012 | Esther Duflo, Tavneet Suri
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Publication - Policy Brief
Estimating the Benefit to Secondary School in Africa (Policy Brief)
1 Mar 2012 | Esther Duflo, Pascaline Dupas, Michael Kremer
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Publication - Working Paper
Estimating the Benefit to Secondary School in Africa (Final Report)
1 Mar 2012 | Esther Duflo, Pascaline Dupas, Michael Kremer
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Publication - Policy Brief
Enhancing Local Public Service Delivery (Policy Brief)
1 Mar 2012 | Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande
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Publication - Working Paper
Enhancing Local Public Service Delivery (Final Report)
10 Aug 2011 | Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande
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Publication - Working Paper
Evaluation of the impact of microfinance in rural areas of Morocco (Working Paper)
31 Mar 2011 | Bruno Crépon, Florencia Devoto, Esther Duflo, William Parienté
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Publication - Policy Brief
Impact of microcredit in rural areas of Morocco: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation (Policy Brief)
1 Mar 2011 | Bruno Crépon, Florencia Devoto, Esther Duflo, William Parienté
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Publication - Policy Brief
On the Road: Access to Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Growth in China (Policy Brief)
1 Dec 2010 | Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Nancy Qian
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Publication - Working Paper
On the Road: Access to Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Growth in China (Working Paper)
1 Dec 2010 | Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Nancy Qian
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Project
Strengthening Capacity of Women Leaders in Rural India: Evaluating the Impact of Training on the Effectiveness of Elected Women Representatives (EWR) to Village Councils in Bihar
This project aims to evaluate the effect of a leaders training program by the UNDP and the State Government of Bihar, Department of Panchayati Raj, on women leaders’ confidence, villager attitudes towards female leaders, and effectiveness of female leaders. It will also seek to design and evaluate an additional negotiation training module to further empower and equip...
1 Apr 2010 | Esther Duflo
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Publication - Working Paper
Diffusion of Technologies Within Social Networks (Project Report)
1 Mar 2010 | Esther Duflo, Tavneet Suri
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Project
Evaluation of the impact of microfinance in rural areas of Morocco
Microcredit has rapidly expanded in the past years, providing access to financial services to a large population previously excluded from the financial system. However, whether it helps the poor has been a subject of intense debate on which, until very recently, there was no rigorous evidence. This paper reports the results of a randomized experiment designed to measure the...
1 Feb 2010 | Esther Duflo, Bruno Crépon, William Parienté
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Project
Third-party environmental auditing
High levels of industrial pollution are a harmful byproduct of growth. The Indian state of Gujarat is an industrial powerhouse with about 5 percent of the Indian population, but 9 percent of India's registered manufacturing employment and 19 percent of output (Authors' calculation, Annual Survey of Industries, 2004-05). This growth has been accompanied by a degradation of...
1 Jun 2009 | Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan
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Project
Transportation infrastructure and economic growth in China
This study investigates the role of access to transportation infrastructure in promoting economic growth. Do areas that benefit from access to better transportation infrastructure grow faster as a consequence? Despite the existing evidence that increased access to infrastructure reduces the cost of trade and labor migration, which in turn, should increase economic...
1 Jun 2009 | Nancy Qian, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo