BackNobel Prize winner's first reaction after winning: It could be a scam
Michael Kremer was worried the Skype message about him winning Nobel was a scamNobel Prize in economics winners Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo say they're just like any other married couple
PremiumMichael Kremer was worried the Skype message was a scam. It appeared to be from a friend in Sweden and said the person needed to speak with the Harvard economist "urgently."
That's when Kremer realized he'd been awarded the Nobel Prize in economics on Monday. Kremer was recognized along with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."
Kremer says he's watched economics change over the years to a discipline in which researchers engage more with people on the ground.
He also said that while reducing global poverty might seem "intractable," researchers are learning all the time about what works and what doesn't, and governments have become more effective in addressing problems.
Nobel Prize in economics winners Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo say they're just like any other married couple trying to juggle kids and work.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have two children ages 5 and 7.
Duflo told a news conference Monday at MIT in Cambridge that her kids "believe they are the center of the universe, and they don't accept kitchen table conversation" about weighty matters like economics.
Duflo says that means she and Banerjee need to sneak in shop talk while they're cooking meals or walking to work.
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo say they weren't quite sure how to react when the married couple's Nobel Prize in economics wake-up call came.
Duflo says that when the phone rang early Monday, she answered and was told it was an important call from Sweden.
She says her response was, "Well, since you've now woken me up, go ahead."
Banerjee says the Nobel committee asked about getting one of the married partners on a conference call, but "they said they wanted a woman, and I didn't qualify" — so he went back to bed.
The pair recounted the call at a news conference in the United States at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
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