Nobel Laureates Duflo and Banerjee to Head New Development Economics Center at University of Zurich

In a significant move, Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will be joining the University of Zurich (UZH) in July 2026. The married couple, who currently work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will be establishing a new center for development economics at the Swiss institution.

According to the university's announcement, Duflo and Banerjee will each hold an endowed professorship at UZH, funded by the Lemann Foundation. They will also co-lead the new Lemann Center for Development, Education and Public Policy, which aims to foster policy-relevant research and connect researchers and education policymakers around the world.

The decision by the renowned economists to leave MIT and move to Switzerland comes at a time when experts have warned of a potential brain drain from the United States, as the Trump administration's cuts to research funding and attacks on academic freedoms have raised concerns. Duflo herself had co-signed an editorial in 2025 denouncing the "unprecedented attacks" on US science.

Despite their departure from MIT, Duflo and Banerjee will retain part-time positions at the prestigious American institution, allowing them to continue their influential work in the field of development economics. The University of Zurich has expressed its delight in welcoming the Nobel laureates, who were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics for their "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."