30 second read. Written by a grade 6 student

This year the Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to Esther Duflo, Indian American Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer. It was given for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”

What did they do to win the prize?

They won it because the research they did really improved the fight against poverty. The Nobel committee said that, “their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics.”

This can be seen in the fields of Punjab, where Mr. Banerjee and his wife Duflo have worked hard and created an innovative scheme to save power and water – the scheme actually pays farmers for using less power (and so also water) to irrigate their paddy and wheat crops. This is only one example of their work.

Their research broke down the poverty problem and focussed on the smaller issues to look for solutions to fight poverty. For instance, one of their experiments helped understand the reason why underprivileged children do not learn better at school. It was not, as was popularly believed, only because they did not have the money to buy books etc, but because many children needed more assistance in learning – so providing teaching assistants to the weakest students was a far more effective way of improving education in the short to medium term.

And here’s a fun fact – Esther Duflo, Indian American Abhijit Banerjee are the sixth couple to win a Nobel together since it started in 1895.