Abhijit Banerjee

“I was trained as an economic theorist; my job at MIT was as an economic theorist. At some level that's still part of my identity.”

“The world's poorest people use the cheapest available fuels - dung and twigs and even leaves.”

“Catastrophic health shocks do enormous damage to families both economically and otherwise, and are easy to insure, because nobody gets them on purpose. On the other hand, insurance policies...”

“I was very lucky to be born into a very academic family. I was well-read, well-trained in mathematics. I had lots of advantages to start with.”

“I mean, I think it's a two-way relationship: I think you should not have too much faith in your own rationality. You should not have too much faith in the rationality of, you know, anybody e...”