E-Paper
Are Nobel Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo leaving US for Switzerland? Here's all we know
Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join the University of Zurich in July 2026, leaving MIT to establish a new development economics center.
Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, who are among the top development economists worldwide, will join the University of Zurich's (UZH) Faculty of Business, Economics, and Informatics in July 2026. At the moment, they are both instructors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The pair shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Michael Kremer in recognition of their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”
In July 2026, Nobel laureates Banerjee and Duflo will depart the United States to move to the University of Zurich. The married couple will open a new development economics center at UZH. Although their official statement did not provide an explanation, reports suggest that their departure coincides with concerns about cuts to research funding and potential threats to academic freedom in the United States. According to experts, this has raised worries about a possible brain drain as other nations compete for the best scientists.
All about Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee
Currently, Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation at MIT. She is the chair of the Collège de France's Poverty and Public Policy department. In addition, Duflo is the Paris School of Economics' president. She holds fellow status in the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Banerjee was born in Mumbai, India, into a family of academics of economics. He attended Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Calcutta. In 1998, Banerjee earned his doctorate from Harvard University. He then became a professor at Princeton and Harvard.
After that, he became the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. After getting married in 2015, Banerjee and Duflo joined Sendhil Mullainathan in founding J-PAL.
In addition, Banerjee is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Duflo and Banerjee to enter University of Zurich
Both Duflo and Banerjee will accept Lemann Foundation-supported endowment professorships at UZH. They will keep researching development economics, particularly the practical implementation of poverty, health, and education programs. Additionally, the Lemann Centre for Development, Education, and Public Policy will be established by the couple at the Department of Economics at UZH. The Lemann Foundation has donated CHF 26 million to assist the program.
