Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Developmental Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been selected to receive the 2015 A.Sk Social Science Award from the WZB Social Science Center in Berlin, Germany. The prize, given out every two years is endowed with 100,000 euros. The award was established in 2007 by the Chinese couple Shu Kai and Angela Chan and honors individuals who have promoted political and economic reform. Professor Duflo will be presented the award on October 10 in Berlin.
Dr. Duflo is the winner of a MacArthur genius award and holds a master’s degree from the Paris School of Economics and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT. She is the co-author of the critically acclaimed book Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (PublicAffairs, 2011).
In 2013 Professor Duflo was the only woman among the five winners of the $1 million Dan David Prize. Earlier this year, she was selected as the winner of the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences from the Princess of Asturias Foundation in Spain.