Nobel economics prize awarded for work on global poverty

This year’s Nobel prize for economics has been awarded to a trio of scientists for their research on alleviating global poverty.

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer’s work focuses on different ways to reduce poverty.

Their work had “dramatically improved our ability to fight poverty in practice”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said.

The trio will receive nine million Swedish krona (£820,000).

Esther Duflo is only the second woman to have won the economics prize since it began in 1969, following Elinor Ostrom in 2009. At 46 years old, she is also the youngest recipient of the prize.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the winners had introduced “a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty”.

It said they had broken the complex issue into “smaller, more manageable questions” making it easier to tackle.

“As a direct result of one of their studies, more than five million Indian children have benefited from effective programmes of remedial tutoring in school,” the Academy said.

“Another example is the heavy subsidies for preventive healthcare that have been introduced in many countries.”

The Nobel economics prize – technically known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize – is the only award not created by philanthropist Alfred Nobel.

Instead, the economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank “in memory of Alfred Nobel” and first awarded in 1969.

Last year, William Nordhaus and Paul Romer won the prize for their work on sustainable growth.

The US economists’ research focused on how climate change and technology have affected the economy.

In 2017, US economist Richard Thaler, author of the best seller Nudge, won for his work in behavioural economics.

Since it was first awarded in 1969, Americans have dominated the awards. Esther Duflo is only the second woman to have won the economics prize since 1969. Elinor Ostrom was the first in 2009.