The Economics Nobel, 2019.
The SVERIGES RIKSBANK PRIZE in ECONOMIC SCIENCES, in memory of ALFRED NOBEL, was conferred on Economists, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer on 14th October, by the the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for their "Experimental approach to alleviate Global Poverty".
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences:
Founded in 1739, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent organisation responsible for conferring the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Their objective is to promote the Sciences and improve their influence in the Society.
They are patrons of all Sciences, with a special focus on Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Relevance:
Reduction of Global Poverty is gaining significance as one of Humanitys' Urgent Issues. People at the margin are mostly worse-off because they don't benefit from the various Welfare schemes aimed at them.
They introduced a new approach to fight Global Poverty - Dividing the issue into smaller and more manageable questions.
These precise questions are best answered by carefully designed experiments among the affected. Michael Kremer did his Field work in Kenya and later joined Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo in their research in India.
Their work has shown how poverty could be addressed by breaking it down into smaller and more precise questions in Education and Healthcare.
Why Them:
Banerjee's and Duflo's collaborated efforts directly resulted in more than 5 million Indian students being benefitted from Effective Remedial tutoring in school.
Their focus was more on Quality than Quantity. They were great patrons of Heavy subsidies in Preventive Healthcare.
Economists have been studying Poverty by often researching the character traits that distinguish the Very Poor from the rest of the society and offer remedies based on theories that state how people should respond to incentives without focusing on how these incentives would work in practical life.
Welfare is aimed at improving the quality of life of the poor. But in a Practical rather than an Ideal world, the essence of these schemes is lost in implementation. As individuals, we all prioritise ourselves and hence, it often happens that when there is no incentive to provide quality service, it simply doesn't happen. This is what goes wrong in the Execution phase.
The Laureates' findings attempt to tackle these issues at a basic level - providing incentives for the receipients of the service so that Service Providers make Quality service a priority. This thesis worked well in Duflo's and Banerjee's experiment, where they provided cereals for every family whose kid turned up for vaccination.
Thus, by creating an incentive for the Poor, they succeeded in enrolling more people in the vaccination campaign.
The Guardian lauded the Winners by acknowledging them as " Worthy Winners" and on their work, quotes the following, "They make a subtle case for one big argument. Aid can really help the poor, provided the money follows the evidence."
The major features of the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize for Economic Sciences are as follows:
Esther Duflo is the youngest ever Economist to win the honour, at 46. She is also the Second Women Economist, after Elinor Ostrom.
Abhijit Banerjee, is the Second Indian Economist to win the honour after Amartya Sen.
The prize money, 9 million Kronors is to be divided equally between the winners.
The economists know better than to splurge and lets hope all this added fame and fund will make a strong case for further research and ensure the Trickling down of Welfare to the most needed, deprived corner.
References: Press release, nobelprize.org
Knappily
amp.theguardian.com.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences:
Founded in 1739, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent organisation responsible for conferring the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Their objective is to promote the Sciences and improve their influence in the Society.
They are patrons of all Sciences, with a special focus on Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Relevance:
Reduction of Global Poverty is gaining significance as one of Humanitys' Urgent Issues. People at the margin are mostly worse-off because they don't benefit from the various Welfare schemes aimed at them.
The major culprit for this vicious cycle is ignorance. Most remain unaware of the various beneficial schemes and those in charge of spreading the word don't often do the best job.
The current Laureates studied the ineffectiveness of the various Welfare Schemes in the various 2nd and 3rd tier countries in the world.They introduced a new approach to fight Global Poverty - Dividing the issue into smaller and more manageable questions.
These precise questions are best answered by carefully designed experiments among the affected. Michael Kremer did his Field work in Kenya and later joined Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo in their research in India.
Their work has shown how poverty could be addressed by breaking it down into smaller and more precise questions in Education and Healthcare.
Why Them:
Banerjee's and Duflo's collaborated efforts directly resulted in more than 5 million Indian students being benefitted from Effective Remedial tutoring in school.
Their focus was more on Quality than Quantity. They were great patrons of Heavy subsidies in Preventive Healthcare.
Economists have been studying Poverty by often researching the character traits that distinguish the Very Poor from the rest of the society and offer remedies based on theories that state how people should respond to incentives without focusing on how these incentives would work in practical life.
Welfare is aimed at improving the quality of life of the poor. But in a Practical rather than an Ideal world, the essence of these schemes is lost in implementation. As individuals, we all prioritise ourselves and hence, it often happens that when there is no incentive to provide quality service, it simply doesn't happen. This is what goes wrong in the Execution phase.
The Laureates' findings attempt to tackle these issues at a basic level - providing incentives for the receipients of the service so that Service Providers make Quality service a priority. This thesis worked well in Duflo's and Banerjee's experiment, where they provided cereals for every family whose kid turned up for vaccination.
Thus, by creating an incentive for the Poor, they succeeded in enrolling more people in the vaccination campaign.
The Guardian lauded the Winners by acknowledging them as " Worthy Winners" and on their work, quotes the following, "They make a subtle case for one big argument. Aid can really help the poor, provided the money follows the evidence."
The major features of the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize for Economic Sciences are as follows:
Esther Duflo is the youngest ever Economist to win the honour, at 46. She is also the Second Women Economist, after Elinor Ostrom.
Abhijit Banerjee, is the Second Indian Economist to win the honour after Amartya Sen.
The prize money, 9 million Kronors is to be divided equally between the winners.
The economists know better than to splurge and lets hope all this added fame and fund will make a strong case for further research and ensure the Trickling down of Welfare to the most needed, deprived corner.
References: Press release, nobelprize.org
Knappily
amp.theguardian.com.
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