Esther Duflo, also known as Esther Duflo Banerjee, is a distinguished French-American economist renowned for her contributions to development economics and poverty alleviation. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Duflo has dedicated much of her career to understanding and mitigating the challenges faced by impoverished populations around the world.

As the co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), established in 2003, Duflo has been instrumental in promoting field experiments to explore the effectiveness of various policies and interventions aimed at reducing poverty. Her innovative experimental approach to economics earned her a share of the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, alongside colleagues Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer.

Duflo's academic focus extends to various microeconomic issues in developing countries, encompassing household behavior, education, access to finance, health, and policy evaluation. She is a member of prestigious institutions such as the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). Furthermore, Duflo serves as the director of the Centre for Economic Policy Research's development economics program.

Her authorship includes notable works such as Poor Economics and Good Economics for Hard Times, co-authored with Abhijit Banerjee. These publications have significantly influenced academic discourse and policy-making, highlighted by Duflo's position as one of the most frequently cited authors in college economics syllabi.