'Very happy', says mother of Nobel Prize recipient Abhijit Banerjee

As Abhijit Banerjee was among the three economists jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, Nirmala Banerjee, mother of the Indian-born economist, is on cloud nine over her son's achievement.

"I am very happy. It's a big glory for the entire family," she told reporters here on Monday.

Banerjee, his French-American wife Esther Duflo and the US' Michael Kremer were awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

"The research conducted by the 2019 Economic Sciences laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field of research," a statement from the Nobel Prize Twitter handle said.

The three economists have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty.

Banerjee and Duflo, along with Kremer soon performed similar studies of other issues and in other countries, including India. Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development economics.

"The 2019 Economic Sciences Laureates' research findings have dramatically improved our ability to fight poverty in practice. As a result of one of their studies, more than 5 million Indian children have benefitted from programmes of remedial tutoring in schools," the statement said.

Banerjee attended South Point School and went to the Presidency College, Calcutta, where he completed his BS degree in Economics in 1981.

Banerjee completed his MA in Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 1983. Later, he went on to obtain a PhD in Economics at Harvard University in 1988.

The 58-year-old Kolkata-born economist is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.