Economists are traditionally revered for their grand theories, whether of the “invisible hand” of the market, or the interventionist state, or the contradictions of capitalism. The French economist Esther Duflo, who was awarded the Nobel Prize on 14 October, has pioneered an alternative model.
“The core of my approach is to take big questions and break them into smaller pieces that can be answered much more rigorously,” she explained when we met recently in London. The best economics, Duflo says, is “the least strident”, likening her work to plumbing or rock climbing (one of her hobbies).
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