Esther Duflo won a Nobel Prize this year for her work in poor countries. Now, the French-American economist wants to use the limelight to rescue the battered reputation of her profession and restore its role in tackling the problems that are plaguing the rich world.
We meet in London, where Duflo is gracious about the prospect of yet another grilling. “It is busy, but good busy,” she says of the month that has passed since the Nobel award.
With a new book just published (Good Economics for Hard Times, an attempt to show what economics can bring to fraught debates on immigration, trade or rising inequality), she adds, “I could not have asked for better timing.”