Michael Kremer
Michael Kremer | |
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Nobel Prize in Economics (2019)MacArthur Fellowship (1997) | |
Information at IDEAS / RePEc | |
Academic background | |
Thesis | Two Essays on Economic Growth (1992) |
Michael Robert Kremer (born November 12, 1964)[2] is an American development economist currently serving as University Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago and Director of the Development Innovation Lab at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics.[3][4] Kremer formerly served as the Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University, a role he held from 2003 to 2020.[4] In 2019, Kremer was jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, together with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee,[5] "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."[6]
In addition to his academic appointments, Kremer is the co-founder of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD),[4] a member of the National Academy of Sciences,[4] and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.[7] In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society.[3] Kremer is also the Scientific Director of Development Innovation Ventures,[4] a program of the United States Agency for International Development aimed at maximizing the impact of development spending through rigorous impact evaluation.[8]
Early life and education
Michael Robert Kremer was born on November 12, 1964[2] to Eugene and Sara Lillian (née Kimmel) Kremer[9] in New York City.[10] Both his mother and father were the children of Jewish immigrants, from Poland and Austria-Poland, respectively.[9] His father taught architecture at Kansas State University, and his mother was a professor of English at the same institution, where she specialized in American Jewish and Holocaust literature.[9] Kremer attended Manhattan High School in Manhattan, Kansas, where his mother was formerly a teacher.[11] Beginning in fifth grade, he took classes at Kansas State University, taking enough credits to achieve sophomore standing by his junior year of high school.[12]
He left high school a year early to attend
After graduating from
Kremer is the husband of Rachel Glennerster,[10] an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, and the former Chief Economist of the UK Department for International Development.[19]
Career
Kremer began his academic career at the
In addition to his academic appointments, Kremer is a fellow of the Econometric Society,[3] a member of the National Academy of Sciences,[20] and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21] In 2002, he co-founded the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development,[4] a non-profit learned society promoting research on the microeconomics of development. Since 1999, Kremer has also been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.[7]
According to
Inspired by a
In 2010, Kremer co-founded Development Innovation Ventures, an evidence based innovation fund administered by
From 2011 to 2014, Kremer co-led an experimental evaluation of an SMS-based information service in which Kenyan smallholder farmers were texted agricultural advice.[33] The program increased yields by 8%,[33] inspiring Kremer to co-found Precision Development (PxD), a non-profit organization building digital information services for the world's poor.[34][35] In 2020, PxD's programs had 5.7 million users, at an average cost per user of $1.61.[36]
Kremer has also pursued research on vaccine development and financing. He developed an interest in the subject after contracting malaria while traveling in Kenya.[37] In a 2004 book with his wife, Rachel Glennerster,[38] Kremer advocates for the creation of advance market commitments, in which governments enter into legally binding agreements with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, promising to purchase given quantities of vaccines or medications provided they meet certain benchmarks for safety and efficacy.[39] In response to Kremer's research, a consortium of donors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and national governments such as Canada, Italy, and Norway pledged $1.5 billion as an advance market commitment for pneumococcal vaccines.[10] The AMC has inspired the creation of three different vaccinations, which have collectively immunized 150 million children.[40]
Kremer's research was also widely cited during the
Research
Kremer's research focuses on economic growth and poverty alleviation, particularly as it relates to health and education. Along with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, he is a leading proponent of the use of randomized controlled trials in development economics, a contribution recognized by the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.[2]
O-ring theory of economic development
Kremer’s dissertation research examined the determinants of long-run economic growth. Among his earliest contributions was the
Kremer's work on the O-ring theory was inspired by his time in Kenya, when he organized a training session for WorldTeach volunteers, but forgot to purchase toilet paper for the event.[37] The experience demonstrated how even small failures can derail a larger enterprise, such that production processes often require many complementary high-skilled workers to succeed.[37]
Population growth
During his graduate studies, Kremer also pursued research on the link between population growth and technological change. In a paper in
Species endangerment
In other theoretical work, Kremer studies the optimal policy responses to species endangerment. In a paper with Charles Morcom in the American Economic Review,[50] Kremer argues that because the price of ivory is positively associated with poachers’ incentives to kill endangered elephants, governments should accumulate stockpiles of ivory, releasing them onto the open market when elephant populations reach dangerous levels.[37][51] He argues that doing so can counteract increased incentives to poach, thereby preventing species endangerment.[37][51]
The policy value of Kremer and Morcom’s work was criticized by Erwin H. Bulte and co-authors, who argue in a reply in the American Economic Review that government ownership of ivory may incentivize the preemptive extermination of endangered species, thereby allowing stores to be legally sold under CITES.[52] They propose instead that stores of ivory are managed by intergovernmental conservation organizations who do not face the same incentives as governments to maximize revenues in the short-term.[52]
Deworming
Among Kremer's most recognized work examines the effects of
In 2021, Kremer and Miguel published a long-term follow up of the initial deworming program in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,[54] showing that those who received an extra two to three years of deworming treatment as a child have consumer spending that is 14% higher than their counterparts ten years later.[55] They also find that deworming increases the likelihood of living in an urban area, and decreases the likelihood of working in agriculture (a sector with generally lower wages and less capacity for growth).[55]
Public sector absenteeism
Another strand of Kremer's work concerns public sector absenteeism in the developing world, particularly in public education and health systems. In work with Karthik Muralidharan, Jeffrey Hammer, Halsey Rogers, and Nazmul Chaudhury,[56] Kremer shows via unannounced visits to Indian public schools that teacher absenteeism sits at 25%, varying from 15% in Maharashtra to 42% in Jharkhand.[57] Subsequent research has estimated the salary cost of this absenteeism at $1.5 billion per year in India.[57][58]
In wider work covering Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda,[59] Kremer and co-authors show that health worker absenteeism averages 35% across countries.[60] Their work has inspired randomized evaluations of several novel policy solutions to public sector absenteeism, such as camera[61] and mobile phone based[62] monitoring schemes.
Advance market commitments
Kremer has also pursued research on innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. He and Rachel Glennerster have been leading proponents of advance market commitments, legally binding agreements in which governments agree to purchase a given quantity of a vaccine or other item at a profitable price, provided it meets certain standards for efficacy and safety.[39][63] Kremer promoted the idea in a 2004 book,[38][39] in addition to a widely cited 2003 report published by the Center for Global Development.[64]
In a 2020 working paper,[65] Kremer, Jonathan Levin, and Christopher Tucker review the economic case for AMCs, showing theoretically that they can effectively prevent the hold-up problem that emerges when pharmaceutical firms cannot bargain on prices until after vaccines or other drugs are developed.[66] Advance market commitments have been suggested as a means of spurring investment across a wide variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals,[39] carbon removal,[67][68] and renewable energy.[69]
Recognition
Kremer is among the most cited development economists, ranking in the top 130 economists in the world by total research output according to Research Papers in Economics.[22] The Open Syllabus Project ranks him as the 28th most cited author on the syllabi of university economics courses.[70] In 2006, he received a Scientific American 50 Award, awarded to influencers from research, business, and politics with "an interest in leading technological innovation as a force for the public good."[71]
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
In 2019, Kremer was chosen as the co-winner of the
Kremer's
Kremer, Duflo, and Banerjee donated the winnings associated with their prize to the Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics, a University of Chicago based grant-making body supporting frontier research in development economics.[75] Writing of their decision to do so, Kremer noted that "Abhijit, Esther and I truly believe that our Nobel Prize is an award for the development economics community, and we wanted to invest it in a way that provides new opportunities for research."[76]
Other awards and honors
Economics prizes
- David A. Wells Prize for Best Economics Dissertation (1992), Harvard University[13]
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (1996)[37]
- Kenneth J. Arrow Award for Best Paper in Health Economics (2005), International Health Economics Association[77]
- Juan Luis Londoño Prize for Best Paper Presented by Young Authors at the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association Conference (2015)[78]
Fellowships and invited affiliations
- MacArthur Fellowship (1997)[79]
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Inducted 2003)[21]
- Fellow of the Econometric Society (Inducted 2008)[3]
- Member, National Academy of Sciences (Inducted 2020)[20]
Selected Publications
Books
- Kremer, Michael; Glennerster, Rachel (2004). Strong Medicine: Creating Incentives for Pharmaceutical Research on Neglected Diseases. Princeton University Press.
Articles
Macroeconomics and economic growth
- Kremer, Michael (1993). "The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108 (3): 551–575. JSTOR 2118400.
- Kremer, Michael (1993). "Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108 (3): 681–716. JSTOR 2118405.
Public health
- Miguel, Edward; Kremer, Michael (January 2004). "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities". Econometrica. 72 (1): 159–217. .
- Hamory, Joan; Miguel, Edward; Walker, Michael; Kremer, Michael; Baird, Sarah (April 6, 2021). "Twenty-year economic impacts of deworming". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (14). PMID 33790017.
Education
- Kremer, Michael; Chaudhury, Nazmul; Rogers, Halsey; Muralidharan, Karthik; Hammer, Jeffrey (May 2005). "Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot". Journal of the European Economic Association. 3 (2–3): 658–667. .
- Duflo, Esther; Dupas, Pascaline; Kremer, Michael (August 2011). "Peer Effects, Teacher Incentives, and the Impact of Tracking: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Kenya". American Economic Review. 101 (5): 1739–1774. .
Agriculture
- Duflo, Esther; Kremer, Michael; Robinson, Jonathan (April 2008). "How High Are Rates of Return to Fertilizer? Evidence from Field Experiments in Kenya". American Economic Review. 98 (2): 482–488. S2CID 18091970.
- Duflo, Esther; Kremer, Michael; Robinson, Jonathan (October 2011). "Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya". American Economic Review. 101 (6): 2350–2390. .
Innovation
- Kremer, Michael; Levin, Jonathan; Snyder, Christopher M. (May 2020). "Advance Market Commitments: Insights from Theory and Experience". AEA Papers and Proceedings. 110: 269–273. .
See also
References
- ^ "Michael Kremer – Facts – 2019". nobelprize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019". The Nobel Prize. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Michael Kremer | Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics". University of Chicago Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Michael Kremer | The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy". University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
- ^ a b c "The Prize in Economic Sciences 2019" (PDF) (Press release). Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. October 14, 2019 – via nobelprize.org.
- ^ a b "Michael Kremer". NBER. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b McDonough, Siobhan (August 1, 2022). "The US spends billions on foreign aid. But it doesn't know how much good our money is doing". Vox. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Economics". jinfo.org. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g "How Michael Kremer is transforming global research in development economics | University of Chicago News". news.uchicago.edu. September 9, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ^ a b "Former MHS student receives Nobel Prize in economics". The Mercury. October 14, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ^ "Nobel winner proves all things possible for MHK students". The Mercury. October 15, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Michael Kremer CV" (PDF). University of Chicago. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Michael Kremer's Nobel Fight Against Global Poverty | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ^ "Michael Robert Kremer". macfound.org. MacArthur Foundation. January 1, 2005 [Originally published July 1, 1997]. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ "Home - worldteach". www.worldteach.org. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ProQuest 303989806.[page needed]
- ^ JSTOR 2118400.
- ^ "Rachel Glennerster". rglennerster.ssd.uchicago.edu. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b "Michael Kremer". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b "Michael Kremer". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. September 13, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b "Economist Rankings | IDEAS/RePEc". ideas.repec.org. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- S2CID 210377958. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
- ^ Smialek, Jeanna (October 14, 2019). "Nobel Economics Prize Goes to Pioneers in Reducing Poverty: Three professors, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of M.I.T., and Michael Kremer of Harvard, were honored". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
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- ^ "From deworming to DIV: Michael Kremer's extraordinary success". The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). November 19, 2019. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b "Deworm the World". Evidence Action. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative – August 2022 version | GiveWell". www.givewell.org. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "Our members". givingwhatwecan.org. Giving What We Can. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
- ^ Matthews, Dylan (April 25, 2023). "The US foreign aid budget could do a lot more good. This House bill wants to force it to". Vox. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "Development Innovation Ventures | Innovation, Technology, and Research". U.S. Agency for International Development. July 28, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b "Contract Farming, Technology Adoption, and Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Western Kenya – ATAI". www.atai-research.org. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "Research Leads to Creation of Precision Agriculture for Development". CEGA. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "Home". Precision Development. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "PxD Global Dashboard". Precision Development. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
- ^ JSTOR j.ctt1dr365r.[page needed]
- ^ a b c d Glenn, David (December 12, 2004). "Making Vaccines Good Business". The New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ a b "Pay Attention to Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer on the Pandemic". Bloomberg.com. May 6, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "AcceleratingHT". www.acceleratinght.org. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "Opinion | Lessons we could learn from Kremer's O-Ring theory". mint. October 21, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- .
- ^ a b Harford, Tim (October 18, 2019). "Weakest link theory provides strong claim to the economics Nobel". Financial Times. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- .
- ^ .
- JSTOR 2118405.
- S2CID 11190602.
- JSTOR 117097.
- S2CID 219389100.
- ^ a b De Alessi, Michael (April 2004). "An Ivory-Tower Take on the Ivory Trade". Econ Journal Watch. 1 (1): 47–54.
- ^ JSTOR 3132299.
- ^ a b c Aizenman, Nurith (August 13, 2020). "Could Giving Kids A 50-Cent Pill Massively Boost Their Income Years Later?". NPR. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- PMID 33790017.
- ^ a b Piper, Kelsey (August 6, 2020). "A new study finds that giving kids deworming treatment still benefits them 20 years later". Vox. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- .
- ^ a b B.S, Sunil (August 18, 2014). "Teachers who don't show up to work cost India $1.5 billion a year". Quartz. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- PMID 28148992.
- PMID 17162836.
- ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- S2CID 1688872.
- S2CID 225263439.
- ^ Scott, Dylan (May 15, 2020). "The good news and the bad news in pharma's response to Covid-19". Vox. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- ^ "Making Markets for Vaccines: Ideas to Action". Center For Global Development | Ideas to Action. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- doi:10.3386/w28168.
- PMID 21821567.
- ^ Kaplan, Rob. "Advance Market Commitments: Applying Climate Change Lessons To Fighting Plastic Pollution". Forbes. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- ^ "Opinion | Advance Market Commitments Worked for Vaccines. They Could Work for Carbon Removal, Too". POLITICO. December 22, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- ^ "The Economics of Demand-Side Support for the Department of Energy's Clean Hydrogen Hubs | CEA". The White House. July 5, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- ^ "192,209 Authors". Open Syllabus. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022.
- ^ "Scientific American 50". Scientific American. December 1, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ Miguel, Edward (January 4, 2021). "A Tribute to 2019 Economics Nobel Prize Recipient, Professor Michael Kremer" (PDF). Retrieved November 25, 2023.
- ^ "Finance and Development". Finance and Development | F&D. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
- ^ a b Kremer, Michael (December 8, 2019). "Experimentation, Innovation, and Economics" (PDF). Retrieved November 25, 2023.
- ^ "Michael Kremer: Experimental Economics Examples | UBS Nobel Perspectives". Nobel Perspectives. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
- ^ "UChicago to administer $50 million grant for Weiss Fund supporting research in development economics | University of Chicago News". news.uchicago.edu. March 30, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
- ^ "Awards – International Health Economics Association". Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ "LACEA -Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association or Asociación de Economía de América Latina y el Caribe". www.lacea.org. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
- ^ "Michael Robert Kremer". www.macfound.org. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
External links
- Home page Archived January 16, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- Innovations for Poverty Action
- Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD)
- Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc
- Publications at the National Bureau of Economic Research
- Michael Kremer on Nobelprize.org including the Prize Lecture December 8, 2019 Experimentation, Innovation, and Economics