Presidency College
Where was Abhijit Banerjee educated from 1980 to 1981?
Abhijit Banerjee Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee ( born 21 February 1961 ) is an Indian-born American economist who is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Banerjee shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty . He and Esther Duflo , who are married , are the sixth married couple to jointly win a Nobel Prize . Banerjee is a co-founder of Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab ( along with economists Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan ) . He is a research affiliate of Innovations for Poverty Action and a member of the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty . Banerjee was a president of the Bureau for the Research in the Economic Analysis of Development , a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research , a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research , an international research fellow of the Kiel Institute , fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and a fellow at the Econometric Society . He also has been a Guggenheim Fellow and an Alfred P . Sloan Fellow . He is the co-author of Poor Economics . He also serves on the academic advisory board of Plaksha University , an upcoming science and technology university in India . His new book , co-authored with Esther Duflo , Good Economics for Hard Times , was released in October 2019 in India by Juggernaut Books . He was sent to Delhis Tihar Jail for 10 days for participating in protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1983 . Early life . Abhijit Banerjee was born in Calcutta , West Bengal , India . His father , Dipak Banerjee , was a professor of economics at Presidency College , Calcutta , and his mother Nirmala Banerjee ( née Patankar ) , a professor of economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences , Calcutta . His father , Dipak Banerjee , earned a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics . He received his school education in South Point High School , a renowned educational institution in Calcutta . After his schooling , he took admission at Presidency College , then an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta and now an autonomous university , where he completed his BSc ( H ) degree in economics in 1981 . Later , he completed his M.A . in economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU ) , Delhi in 1983 . While studying in JNU , he was arrested and imprisoned in Tihar Jail during a protest after students gheraoed the then Vice Chancellor PN Srivastava of the university . He was released on bail and charges were subsequently dropped against the students . Later , he went on to obtain a PhD in Harvard University in 1988 . The subject of his doctoral thesis was Essays in Information Economics . Career . Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; he has taught at Harvard University and Princeton University . His work focuses on development economics . Together with Esther Duflo he has discussed field experiments as an important methodology to discover causal relationships in economics . He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004 . He was also honored with the Infosys Prize 2009 in the social sciences category of economics . He is also the recipient of the inaugural Infosys Prize in the category of social sciences ( economics ) . He also served on the Social Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2018 . In 2012 , he shared the Gerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Business Book with co-author Esther Duflo for their book Poor Economics . In 2013 , he was named by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to a panel of experts tasked with updating the Millennium Development Goals after 2015 ( their expiration date ) . In 2014 , he received the Bernhard-Harms-Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy . In 2019 , he delivered Export-Import Bank of Indias 34th Commencement Day Annual Lecture on Redesigning Social Policy . In 2019 , he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics , together with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer , for their work alleviating global poverty . Research . Banerjee and his co-workers try to measure the effectiveness of actions ( such as government programmes ) in improving peoples lives . For this , they use randomized controlled trials , similar to clinical trials in medical research . For example , although polio vaccination is freely available in India , many mothers were not bringing their children for the vaccination drives . Banerjee and Prof . Esther Duflo , also from MIT , tried an experiment in Rajasthan , where they gifted a bag of pulses to mothers who vaccinated their children . Soon , the immunization rate went up in the region . In another experiment , they found that learning outcomes improved in schools that were provided with teaching assistants to help students with special needs . Personal life . Abhijit Banerjee was married to Dr . Arundhati Tuli Banerjee , a lecturer of literature at MIT . Abhijit and Arundhati had one son together and later divorced . His son Kabir Banerjee ( born 1991 ) , from his first marriage , died in an accident in 2016 . In 2015 , Banerjee married his co-researcher , MIT professor Esther Duflo ; they have two children . Banerjee was a joint supervisor of Duflos PhD in economics at MIT in 1999 . Duflo is also a Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT . Publications . Books . - Banerjee , Abhijit Vinayak ( 2019 ) . A Short History of Poverty Measurements . Juggernaut Books . Awards . Abhijit Banerjee was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019 along with his two co-researchers Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty . The press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted : Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development economics . The Nobel committee commented : - He has been awarded the Doctor of Letters ( Honoris Causa ) by the University of Calcutta in January 2020 . The Nobel Prize was a major recognition for their chosen field - Development Economics , and for the use of Randomised Controlled Trials . It evoked mixed emotions in India , where his success was celebrated with nationalistic fervour while approach and pro-poor focus were seen as a negation of India’s current government’s ideology as well as broader development discourse .