Abhijit Banerjee is an Indian American economist who won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics.
Contents
wiki/bio
Abhijit Banerjee was born on Tuesday, 21 February 1961 (age 58 years; as in 2019) in Kolkata. His zodiac sign is Pisces.
He did his schooling from South Point School, Kolkata. He earned a BS degree in Economics from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1981. He did his MA in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi in 1983. He then attended Harvard to pursue a PhD in economics in 1988, where his doctoral thesis was titled “Essays in Information Economics”.
Abhijit Banerjee in his younger days
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 10″
Eye colour: black
Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Family, wife and ethnicity
Abhijit Banerjee is a Bengali Indian. He comes from a family of economists. His father, Deepak Banerjee, was a professor and head of the economics department at the Presidency College, Calcutta. His mother, Nirmala Banerjee, was a professor of economics at the Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
Abhijit Banerjee’s father Deepak Banerjee
Abhijit Banerjee’s mother Nirmala Banerjee
Abhijit Banerjee has been married twice. He married his first wife, Dr. Arundhati Tuli Banerjee, when he was a professor at MIT. They grew up together in Kolkata. However their marriage did not last long and they got divorced. They had a son, Kabir Banerjee, but he died in a tragic accident around March 2016.
Abhijit Banerjee’s first wife is Dr. Arundhati Tuli Banerjee.
Kabir Banerjee, son of Abhijit Banerjee
In 2015, Abhijeet married French-American economist Esther Duflo. She was his doctoral student, and later his co-researcher. When Esther was at MIT in 1999, Abhijeet was also her joint supervisor in her PhD in Economics. When he had a child with Esther in 2012, Abhijeet was still married to his first wife Arundhati.
Abhijit Banerjee with his second wife Esther Duflo
livelihood
When Abhijeet completed his PhD, he taught at several prestigious institutions, including Harvard University and Princeton University. He then became the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research mainly focused on development economics. He is best known for his field experiments, used as an important method for discovering causal relationships in economics.
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo are conducting a field experiment in India
In 2013, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Abhijit to a panel of experts tasked with updating the Millennium Development Goals. On 14 October 2019, Abhijeet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Cramer (an American economist) for their work towards “global poverty alleviation”.
Abhijit Banerjee receiving the Nobel Prize
Controversy
In 1983, when Abhijeet was in JNU, he Along with other students of the Vice-Chancellor P.N. Protested outside Srivastava’s residence. The police were called and when the students resisted the police, the students were beaten and taken into custody. Abhijeet was sent to Tihar Jail along with 400 other students. However, he was granted bail after 10 days and the charges against him were dropped after a year-long legal and political battle.
books written
- Instability and Development (2005; Oxford University Press)
- Making Help Work (2005; MIT Press)
- Understanding Poverty (2006; Oxford University Press)
- Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011; Public Affairs Book Group)
- Handbook of Field Experiments, Volumes 1 and 2 (2017; Elsevier)
- A Brief History of Poverty Measurement (2019; Juggernaut Books)
Awards, Fellowships and Honors
- Institute for Policy Reform Junior Fellow, 1993
- Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 1994–96
- National Science Foundation grant, 1995-98
- Fellow of the Econometric Society, 1996
- MacArthur Foundation grant under the Cost of Inequality Project, 1996-2002
- “Creativity Expansion” National Science Foundation Grant 1998-2000.
- Mahalanobis Memorial Medal, 2000, India
- Malcolm Adessia Award, 2001
- National Science Foundation Grant “Inequality, Growth, and Trade Policy,” 2002-2006
- Distinguished Visitor, Washington University, St. Louis, 2003
- Romesh Chandra Dutt Lecturer, 2003, Center for Social Science Studies, Calcutta
- National Institute on Aging grant “Health Care and Health Status in Rajasthan, India;” Sub-grant under the “Economics of Aging”, 2004 – 2009
- Kuznets Lecture, 2004, Yale University
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow, 2004
- Member, Council of the Econometric Society, 2004
- IEPR Distinguished Lecture, University of Southern California, 2006
- Michael Wallerstein Award, American Political Science Association, 2006
- D. Gail Johnson Lecture, University of Chicago, 2006
- Honorary Visiting Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, 2006
- Economic Journal Lecture, 2007
- Albert Hirschman Lecture, 2007
- Honorary Consultant in PEO, Planning Commission, India, 2008
- International Research Fellow, Kiel Institute, 2008
- BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Development Collaboration, 2009
- Infosys Prize in Social Sciences, 2009
- Anaya Samman, Kolkata, 2011
- Foreign Policy Magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, 2011
- Sherar Shera Bengali (Best of the Best Bengali), 2012
- Gaborone International Prize for Economics, 2013
- Albert O. Hirschman Prize (Social Science Research Council), 2014
- Honorary Doctorate Degree, KU Leuven, 2014
- Bernhard Harms Prize (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), 2014
- Sanjay Lal Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, Trinity Term, 2015
- Amlan Dutta Lecture, University of Kolkata, 2018
- Tanner Lecture on Human Values, University of Oxford, 2018
- Jean Jacques Laffont Lecture, AFSE, 2018
- Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 2019
Favourite Things
- Sweets: Bengali message decorated with rose petals
- Cuisine: Exotic Lucknow Style Kebab
fact
- After winning the Nobel Prize, Abhijeet’s mother said that he forgot to tell her about his achievement, but she was very proud of him. He also revealed that Abhijeet was not only good in studies, but he was also good in sports and is also fond of cooking.
- Although Abhijeet is an American citizen, he is equally immersed in Indian culture and lifestyle.
- On March 28, 2016, following his son’s death, MIT held a special memorial service in honor of his son’s memory in the MIT Chapel.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn