An Intimate Look Into The Lives Of The Nobel Prize-Winning Esther Duflo And Abhijit Banerjee

They understand poverty and privilege, are pioneers in their fi eld and lean on their kids to keep them grounded. Vogue India takes an intimate look into the lives of the world’s most celebrated economist couple, the Nobel Prize-winning Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee.

- Shahnaz Siganporia

In October 2019, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer. The prize, apart from highlighting the trio’s groundbreaking “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”, also gave India another Nobel winner in Indian-American Banerjee (and yes, gave West Bengal another prizeman). But more importantly, in French-American Duflo, the world got its second and youngest (at 47) female winner in economics. It also let Duflo and Banerjee, the sixth married couple to join the elite ‘partners in life and science’ club, completely redefine couple goals. And so, who can resist asking two of the finest minds in the world: who hogs the sheets at night? For the record, there isn’t a clear consensus. But if you ask them how they share work and life, Duflo simply says, “We get stressed out and irritated by different things. There is always one of us to maintain some balance in a situation,” before Banerjee teases: “She’s basically saying I irritate and she gets less irritated.”

INSIDE JOB

We meet on a sultry day between their two hotel rooms, one for the children—eight-year-old daughter Noemie and six-year-old son Milan—and their au pair, and the other for the couple. The charming intimacy of family courses through, with balloons strewn across the rooms amid a muddle of chargers and clothes: they’re in the middle of their travels across India, which finds them crossing through Mumbai as they make their way to Kerala for some downtime. French and English weave through their sentences effortlessly as they skip from one room to the next, making sure the kids are ready while getting dressed themselves. “I’m curious to experience a photo shoot with Vogue India. I’ve never done something like this before,” Banerjee shares.