The University of Zurich (UZH) has announced that Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, two of the world’s leading development economists, will join its Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics in July 2026. Both of them currently teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, the couple received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, which they shared with Michael Kremer for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”
Duflo and Banerjee leaving the US for Zurich
Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, are set to leave the United States and join the University of Zurich from July 2026. The married couple will establish a new center for development economics at UZH. The official statement didn’t explain why they are leaving, but reports indicate their move comes amid worries about research funding cuts and threats to academic freedom in the US. Experts say this has caused concerns of a potential brain drain, with other countries looking to attract top scientific talent.
Who are Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee?
Esther Duflo currently holds the Abdul Latif Jameel Professorship of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT. She chairs the Poverty and Public Policy at Collège de France. Duflo also serves as president of the Paris School of Economics. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Econometric Society.
Born in Mumbai, India, Abhijit Banerjee comes from a family of economics professors. He studied at the University of Calcutta and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Banerjee completed his PhD from Harvard University in 1998. Later, he took professor roles at Harvard and Princeton. He then joined MIT as Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics.
In 2015, Banerjee and Duflo got married and co-founded J-PAL along with Sendhil Mullainathan. Banerjee is also a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Econometric Society.
Duflo and Banerjee to Join UZH
At UZH, Duflo and Banerjee will each take on an endowed professorship supported by the Lemann Foundation. They will continue their research in development economics, including how policies in education, poverty, and health actually work on the ground. The couple will also establish the Lemann Centre for Development, Education and Public Policy at UZH’s Department of Economics. The initiative will be supported by a CHF 26 million donation from the Lemann Foundation.
Jorge Paulo Lemann, founder and chairman of the Lemann Foundation, said: “This partnership reflects my trust in Brazil and Switzerland and the power of the two countries working together. It has special significance for my family and our initiative in education.”
Duflo and Banerjee plan to take their ADEPT program to UZH. ADEPT will help provide access to high-quality online and residential courses, originally launched by J-PAL. Duflo said, “The new centre will enable us to continue and expand our work, bridging academic research, student mentorship, and real-world policy impact.” Banerjee added, “We are excited to contribute to making UZH’s Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics an even more attractive place for research and teaching.”
Banerjee was first married to Dr Arundhati Tuli Banerjee, they had one son, who tragically passed away in 2016. In 2015, he married his co-researcher Esther Duflo, with whom he has two children, Noemie and Milan. Banerjee also supervised Duflo’s PhD in economics at MIT, where both continue to teach and conduct research.