Digital publication of the opening lecture by Pr Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo

Experimentation, science and the fight against poverty (almost) fifteen years on

Over the last twenty years, a new method of studying economic development has emerged : the experimental approach. It consists of evaluating anti-poverty policies through pilot experiments conducted with the rigor of clinical trials. Fifteen years after her first opening lecture, Esther Duflo takes stock of the successes and failures of these policies around the world.

Despite progress in certain areas, we are now at a tipping point : poverty is on the rise, and the consequences of global warming, of which the most disadvantaged countries will be the first victims, threaten to wipe out most of the gains we thought we had made. What lessons can we draw from this, given the urgency of the problems facing the world's poorest people ?

Duflo E., Expérience, science et lutte contre la pauvreté (presque) quinze ans après, Paris, Collège de France, coll. " Leçons inaugurales ",^no 315, 2023.

Esther Duflo is an economist, professor at MIT, co-founder and co-director of J-PAL, a laboratory for action against poverty. Co-winner of the 2019 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences, created in memory of Alfred Nobel, she was appointed Professor at the Collège de France in 2022, holding the Poverty and Public Policies Chair.