‘Will help shift that centre of gravity’: Nobel laureate Esther Duflo on MIT to Zurich shift
Nobel laureate Esther Duflo explains her move from MIT to Zurich as a geopolitical and professional realignment, urging a multipolar approach to development and climate.
The dust and din of the Jaipur Literature Festival formed a fitting backdrop for a conversation on global inequality. It was here that Esther Duflo, the Nobel Prize–winning economist, reflected on the 15-year update to her influential book ‘Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty’, co-authored with her husband and fellow Nobel laureate, Abhijit Banerjee.
“We got plenty right and plenty wrong,” she said. The new edition includes fresh chapters on social protection and climate change. “Climate change disproportionately affects the poor. And within the poor, it disproportionately affects women,” she said in an exclusive conversation with The Indian Express, describing her visit to the Sundarbans, where women left behind by migrant husbands work through deadly heat waves.
“They have no access to air conditioning. They cannot go to the one hotel that has it, they’re not allowed. They literally die of heat exposure,” she said. Social systems, she argued, must be redesigned to protect them: “What do we do to allow people not to work when it’s very hot?”
Duflo will also soon relocate from MIT to Zurich. The move is professional and geopolitical. “With the disengagement of the US from international development and climate, it is time for other actors to take over,” she said. She envisions a more multipolar leadership emerging from Indian philanthropy, European institutions, and voices across the Global South.
Zurich, she hopes, will help shift that centre of gravity.
That realignment will take institutional form in July 2026, when Duflo and Banerjee join the University of Zurich. Using external funds provided by the Lemann Foundation, the two economists will establish a new centre for development economics, education and public policy, a concrete step, she said, towards shifting the field’s centre of gravity.
Within economics itself, Duflo sees persistent barriers, especially for women and scholars outside the US and Europe. The culture, she said, remains “a little aggressive”, with seminars that feel like “boxing matches instead of places of exchange”. When she once submitted a paper on Indonesia, an editor told her, “Indonesia tells me nothing about Indiana.” Her reply was swift: “Indiana tells me nothing about Indonesia. There are many more people in Indonesia than Indiana.”
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Looking ahead, she is concerned about artificial intelligence undermining one of India’s key growth engines. “India’s middle class rose through IT and back-office jobs—exactly the roles AI could replace,” she said. “We need to get ahead of this trend.”
On the recent World Bank estimates showing a sharp decline in Indian poverty, she urged caution. “The data is difficult to parse. I would take it with healthy skepticism and look to ground surveys.” On rising global inequality, she was clear: “It does produce political fallout. This is exactly what’s happening.”
As the festival crowd buzzed outside, Duflo turned towards her next session—her work, like the world she studies, continually evolving in the face of heat, power, and change.
Aishwarya Khosla is a senior editorial figure at The Indian Express, where she spearheads the digital strategy and execution for the Books & Literature and Puzzles & Games sections. With over eight years of experience in high-stakes journalism, Aishwarya specializes in literary criticism, cultural commentary, and long-form features that explore the complex intersection of identity, politics, and social change.
Aishwarya’s analytical depth is anchored by her prestigious Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections. This intensive research fellowship in policy analysis and political communications informs her nuanced approach to cultural journalism, allowing her to provide readers with unique insights into how literature and media reflect broader political shifts.
As a trusted voice for the Indian Express audience, she authors the popular newsletters, Meanwhile, Back Home and Books 'n' Bits, and hosts the podcast series, Casually Obsessed.
Before her current role, Aishwarya spent several years at Hindustan Times, where she provided dedicated coverage of the Punjabi diaspora, theater, and national politics. Her career is defined by a commitment to intellectual rigor, making her a definitive authority on modern Indian culture and letters.
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