05 Dec 2019 Nobel-winner Esther Duflo on what mainstream economics got wrong

In her interview to the Delphine Strauss FT journalist, Esther Duflo, the second women being awarded a Nobel prize at the age of 47 declares how she got interested in finding small working solutions to poverty in the developing world experiencing poverty in her own background with her mother, a Parisian doctor, who grew up “dirt poor and isolated” in Argentina where her family migrated for a job that fell through.

She believes that excessive faith in financial incentives is one of the big things mainstream economics got wrong. She is also critical of the relucatance in the profession to accept evidence that does not fit with accepted theories. She quotes the example of Petia Topalova, an economist who works at the IMF, whose works that evidenced the need to compensate loosers from globalization were rejected with scorn and she had to leave academica. This failure on the part of economists to question their assumptions reflected cultural problems, she adds — not least the profession’s dismal record on gender diversity.

For further information, see the full article on the FT of December 5, 2019 at the follwoing link:

https://www.ft.com/content/4c470b8e-1559-11ea-8d73-6303645ac406

https://promarket.org/esther-duflo-how-to-find-the-right-questions/