Victory lap? Or disaster trap?

THE trio that won the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences — Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Michael Kremer of Harvard — ushered in a very real recognition of development economics, the field that offers real-life solutions to real-life problems of societies. And not the grand theorizing on macroeconomic issues and finance that has dominated — and still dominate — the Nobel award in economics.

And experts in Philippine education and serious students of Philippine education issues are now recalling the 2019 economic Nobel not only because it is Nobel-awarding season but for a reason related to the trailblazing work of Banerjee and Duflo. The two worked extensively on the twin issues of poverty reduction and ways to improve mediocrity in education.