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Nobel Prize Winners Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo Say ‘They’re Like Any Other Married Couple’

byLoveleen Kaur
15th October 2019
2 minute read

The country was beaming with pride and joy after Indian-American Economist Abhijit Banerjee was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics last week. Along with Banerjee, his French-American economist wife, Esther Duflo also shared the coveted prize with him and economist Michael Kremer.

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According to News18, the trio was jointly awarded the annual international award for Economics for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” Michael Kremer of Harvard University at first thought the Skype message was a hoax. The message reportedly ‘appeared to be from a friend in Sweden’ that said the person urgently needed to speak with him. That’s when Kremer realized he’d been awarded the Nobel prize.

Michael Kremer

As reported by HT, Duflo, 46, became the second female economics winner in the 50-year history of the Nobel Prize for Economics. Although the couple has been awarded the Nobel laureate, ‘they’re just like any other married couple trying to juggle kids and work.’

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Speaking about how he promptly went back to sleep after he was informed about his feat fearing “an assault to the system”, the professor at MIT says:

“Yes. It was very early in the morning. I’m not an early morning person. I figured it would be an assault to the system if I don’t continue my sleep.”

According to Banerjee, “the Nobel committee asked about getting one of the married partners on a conference call, but they said they wanted a woman, and I didn’t qualify,” so he went back to sleep. Recollecting the conversation when the call came, Duflo says on answering the call, she was told that ‘it was an important call from Sweden,’ to which she replied, “Well since you’ve now woken me up, go ahead.”

The internet was delighted on the couple’s amazing feat:

https://twitter.com/sohamdas27/status/1183707983550660610

https://twitter.com/SanobarFatma/status/1183766468309053440

The couple who has been married for the past four years reportedly became the sixth married couple to win the Nobel Prize after May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Duflo was apparently Banerjee’s doctoral student when the two first met. In couple got married in 2015 and have two kids. This is probably the best #couplegoals everyone should be aiming for.

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