On Esther Duflo
Did someone say fangirl?
I think I’m an outlier. Some people get starstruck around actors and musical talent. I mean I get it, I am a huge fan of all of your favorites as well.
From Doja Cat to Lil Nas X, and everyone in between.
And of course, I understand the hype around people like Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet. Like, I LOVE them.
But I still consciously know that they are no different than me…….just more talented, lol.
But when it comes to the sweaty palms and the fumbling of words, put a thought leader/political figure/activist/expert of any kind—and watch me recede in intelligence by a decade.
I remember meeting Bryan Stevenson after a lecture in undergrad, and not being able to say a word. I literally just stood there awkwardly while he signed my book. I cringe every time I think about it.
One year, I wrote a letter to Samantha Power, I didn’t expect her to write back (she was a professor at Harvard at the time), and when I received a letter back from her, I was so shocked that I didn’t open it for a week.
This semester I have classes with the likes of Dr. Justin Wolfers and Dr. Luke Shaefer— and sometimes I still don’t think it’s real.
So, you can imagine my complete out-of-body experience to be sitting a few feet from none other than the Esther Duflo at Hills Auditorium. The Ross Business School hosted her by way of the annual Joseph and Sally Handleman Lecture.
Like every other Econ student on the planet, I was introduced to Duflo through Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. In fact, the class that I read this book in— Economic Growth and Development, would inspire me to minor in Economics and shape my appreciation for the discipline in the context of policymaking.
And clearly, her work has inspired others because in 2019 she won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
This talk wasn’t recorded (it was one of the moments where you just had to be there), but I did take notes on her lecture, which was guided by questions from the audience. Here were my key takeaways:
A wild fun fact: Duflo hated economics when she first studied it in college— she thought it was trying too hard to be physics! It wasn’t until she saw economics up close (and its flaws) that she became interested in improving the discipline and carving out a new path for understanding poverty.
Duflo has always been interested in impact— in the business world, the word impact has been abused, but she wanted to understand impact and policy evaluation: which policies are effective? Which aren’t? Why?
Making a difference can be your job.
COUNTERFACTUALS: Duflo defines impact as the difference between the outcome and the intervention and what would have happened had the intervention never occurred.
Love what you do and do what you love: doing what you love won’t only make you happier, but your passion (happiness) for what you love, will make you more productive. There are a lot of pressures in the world, but you have to focus on how you will make an impact.
The world may seem so big and have so many problems, but you don’t have to try and solve them all. You can pick one issue and attach your training, and energy to that, and make a difference. Focus on one issue at a time. That is how you “justify your presence on this planet.”
Her call to action:
Today you can start making a difference: by being curious about the world, staying open, and talking with others who you may not agree with— not simply to change their minds, but to gain a new understanding.
Learn to disagree and do so respectfully.
Find a place to make yourself useful— whether that’s in a soup kitchen or on a large development economics project.
Do work that preserves your dignity and preserves the dignity of others. Profit isn’t the only thing that drives behavior— so does dignity. And there is and should be dignity in all work.
Hopefully, these tidbits of wisdom encourage you to dive further into her work and into yours.
Remember, one project at a time.
Xx,
E
cover image by https://unsplash.com/@gor918
Esther Duflo by my iPhone XR