United States-based Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will soon join the University of Zurich, where they will establish a new center for development economics, the institution said on Friday, October 10. The University of Zurich (UZH) said the married couple, who currently work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), would join its economics faculty from July next year.
The statement made no mention of why the pair, who won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize alongside Michael Kremer for their "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty," had decided to leave. Yet they will be moving to Switzerland at a time when experts are warning that US President Donald Trump's cuts to research funding and attacks on universities' academic freedoms could lead to a brain drain, with some countries trying to attract US scientists.
Duflo, an American-French dual national, co-signed an editorial in the newspaper Le Monde back in March denouncing "unprecedented attacks" on US science.
She and Indian-born Banerjee will each have an endowed professorship at UZH funded by the Lemann Foundation, the university said. They will also establish and co-lead the new Lemann Center for Development, Education and Public Policy, with an aim to foster policy-relevant research and connect researchers and education policymakers around the world, it added. "We are delighted that two of the world's most influential economists are joining UZH," university president Michael Schaepman said.
Duflo said the new Lemann Center would enable the couple, who will retain part-time positions at MIT, to "build on and expand our work, which bridges academic research, student mentorship and real-world policy impact."
This year's Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced on Monday.