Effective poverty reduction beyond MDGs – Kapuscinski Development Lectures – what top thinkers think about development

Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a founder and director of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Her research focuses on microeconomic issues in developing countries, including household behavior, education, access to finance, health and policy evaluation. Duflo is the co-author of the bestseller “Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty” book for which she received the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award (with Abhijit Banerjee). Duflo is a member of the President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council. She serves as the founding editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

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José Antonio Ocampo

José Antonio Ocampo is the director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at Columbia University. Ocampo served previously in a number of positions in the United Nations and the Government of Colombia, most notably as United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs; Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Chairman of the Board of Banco del República (Central Bank of Colombia); Director, National Planning Department (Minister of Planning); Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Executive Director of FEDESARROLLO. Ocampo has published extensively on macroeconomic theory and policy, international financial issues, economic and social development, international trade, and Colombian and Latin American economic history. He has received a number of personal honors and distinctions, including the 2008 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought and the 1988 “Alejandro Angel Escobar” National Science Award of Colombia.

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