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Speaker Series with Esther Duflo: Good Economics for Warmer Times

A conversation on evidence for effective and equitable climate action.

The Series features talks by distinguished scholars and policymakers with the goal of fostering discussions about successes and challenges in the field of poverty alleviation.

Event Details:

Monday, April 10, 2023
5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Location

Gunn SIEPR Building

Contact

This event is open to:

Alumni/Friends
Faculty/Staff
General Public
Students
Environment and Climate Change

Climate change is harming the poorest countries the most in terms of economic production and health risks. Globally, combating climate change requires behavior and consumption patterns to shift, especially in industrialized countries.

On Monday, April 10, 2023, the King Center on Global Development hosted a Speaker Series on Good Economics for Warmer Times with 2019 Nobel laureate Esther Duflo, Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT.

Professor Duflo discussed the disproportionate impact of climate change on people in poverty, and why countries need to invest in policy innovation, not just technological innovation, to confront it. She also highlighted why evidence on the impact of climate solutions is crucial for effective and equitable climate action.

Schedule
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Registration & Reception
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Talk by Esther Duflo, Q&A moderated by Arun Majumdar

 

About the Speaker:

Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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 Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In her research, she seeks to understand the economic lives of the poor, with the aim to help design and evaluate social policies. She has worked on health, education, financial inclusion, environment, and governance.

Professor Duflo is the recipient of the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, awarded jointly with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." With Abhijit Banerjee, she wrote Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2011 and has been translated into more than 17 languages, and the follow-up Good Economics for Hard Times.

Her first degrees were in history and economics from École Normale Supérieure, Paris. She subsequently received a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 1999.

About the Moderator:

Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

arun majumdar

Arun Majumdar is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Science and Engineering, and a Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy. His current research focuses on redox reactions and systems that are fundamental to a sustainable energy future, multidimensional nanoscale imaging and microscopy, and an effort to leverage modern AI techniques to develop and deliver energy and climate solutions.

Dr. Majumdar serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm. He also led the Agency Review Team for the Department of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Biden-Harris Presidential transition and served as the Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board of US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz. Dr. Majumdar was the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), where he served from October 2009 through June 2012. He also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy between March 2011 and June 2012, and was a Senior Advisor to Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu.

Dr. Majumdar received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

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