Michael Kremer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Kremer
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Kremer in 2020
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Michael Robert Kremer
November 12, 1964 New York City, U.S.
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| Spouse(s) | Rachel Glennerster |
| Institutions | |
| Field | Development economics Health economics |
| Alma mater |
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| Doctoral advisor |
Robert Barro • Eric Maskin • Greg Mankiw |
| Doctoral students |
Edward Miguel • Seema Jayachandran • Karthik Muralidharan • Nava Ashraf • Benjamin Olken • Dina Pomeranz • Emily Oster • Asim Ijaz Khwaja |
| Contributions | O-ring theory of economic development • Randomized controlled trials |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Economics (2019) MacArthur Fellowship (1997) |
| Information at IDEAS / RePEc | |
Michael Robert Kremer (born November 12, 1964) is an American economist. He studies how to help poor countries grow and improve. He teaches economics at the University of Chicago.
In 2019, Michael Kremer won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He shared the award with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. They won for their new way of testing ideas to reduce poverty around the world.
Kremer also helped start the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). This group helps with research on how economies in developing countries work. He is also part of the National Academy of Sciences.
Contents
Early Life and School
Michael Robert Kremer was born in New York City in 1964. His parents were Eugene and Sara Lillian Kremer. His mother was a professor who taught English literature.
He went to Harvard University. He earned his first degree in 1985. Later, he got his PhD in economics in 1992.
Career in Economics
Kremer started his teaching career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1992. He became a professor there in 1998.
In 1999, he moved to Harvard University. He was a special professor there, focusing on developing societies. From 2003 to 2020, he held the Gates Professorship.
After Harvard, Kremer joined the University of Chicago. He is now a University Professor in Economics. He also leads the Development Innovation Lab there.
Kremer is a member of important groups like the Econometric Society. He is also part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 1999, he has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Michael Kremer is known as one of the most important economists in the world. He focuses his research on how economies grow and how to reduce poverty. He pays special attention to education and health.
He worked with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo to use a special method. This method is called randomized controlled trials. It helps test if anti-poverty programs really work. Duflo said Kremer was a "visionary" for using these new methods early on.
Helping People Around the World
Deworming Programs
Kremer helped start the Deworm the World Initiative. This idea came from his research with Edward Miguel. They found that giving deworming medicine to children in schools helped them learn better and stay healthier.
Since 2014, this program has given 1.8 billion treatments to children. It is run by a group called Evidence Action. Many people see it as one of the best charities for helping others. Kremer also gives a part of his income to effective charities.
New Ways to Fight Poverty
In 2010, Kremer helped create Development Innovation Ventures (DIV). This program is run by USAID. It finds and supports new ideas to fight poverty. It works like a venture capital fund, giving money to promising projects. If a project works well, it gets more support to grow.
DIV has funded many projects in different countries. These projects have created a lot of good for the money invested.
Agricultural Advice for Farmers
From 2011 to 2014, Kremer worked on a project in Kenya. Farmers received farming tips through text messages. This program helped farmers grow 8% more crops.
This success led Kremer to help start Precision Development (PxD). This group creates digital information services for people in poor areas. By 2020, PxD had 5.7 million users.
Making Vaccines Available
Kremer has also studied how to develop and pay for vaccines. He became interested after getting malaria in Kenya. In a book with his wife, Rachel Glennerster, he suggested a new idea. It's called an advance market commitment (AMC).
With an AMC, governments promise to buy vaccines if they meet certain safety rules. This encourages companies to make new vaccines. Because of Kremer's ideas, a group of countries and foundations promised $1.5 billion for pneumococcal vaccines. This led to three new vaccines that have helped 150 million children.
Kremer's research was very important during the COVID-19 pandemic. His ideas helped governments quickly develop vaccines. He started a group to help speed up vaccine distribution. This group advised the U.S. government on Operation Warp Speed. This program helped create successful COVID-19 vaccines.
Kremer's Research Ideas
Kremer's main research looks at how economies grow and how to reduce poverty. He focuses on health and education. He is a big supporter of using randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in his field. This work earned him the Nobel Prize.
The O-Ring Theory
One of Kremer's early ideas is the O-ring theory of economic development. It's named after the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. A small part failed, causing a huge disaster.
Kremer's idea is that in complex projects, every step needs to be done right. If one small part fails, the whole project can fail. This means that skilled workers often need other skilled workers to succeed. This theory helps explain why wages for skilled workers are higher in places where many other workers are also skilled. It also helps explain why talented people might leave countries with fewer skilled workers.
Population Growth and Ideas
Kremer also studied how population growth affects new ideas and technology. He found that societies with more people often had faster improvements in technology. This is because more people mean more ideas can be created and shared.
Protecting Endangered Animals
Kremer has also looked at how to protect endangered animals. He suggested that governments could store ivory from elephants. If elephant numbers drop too low, they could release some ivory. This would make ivory cheaper and reduce the desire for poachers to kill more elephants. This idea aims to help save species.
Public Sector Absenteeism
Another area Kremer studied is why public workers, like teachers and health workers, sometimes don't show up for work in developing countries. He found that many teachers in India were absent about 25% of the time. Health workers were absent even more often.
His work has led to new ways to solve this problem. For example, some programs use cameras or mobile phones to check if workers are present.
Awards and Recognition
Michael Kremer is one of the most cited economists in the world. This means his work is often used and referred to by other economists.
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
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In 2019, Kremer won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He shared it with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. They were honored for their "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." The Nobel committee said their method of using randomized controlled trials now leads the way in development economics.
Berkeley professor Edward Miguel said Kremer's work made it normal for economists to spend time in the countries they study. Amartya Sen, another Nobel winner, praised Kremer for combining economic theory with real-world testing.
Kremer, Duflo, and Banerjee gave their prize money to a fund that supports new research in development economics. They wanted to help other researchers find new ways to fight poverty.
Other Awards
- David A. Wells Prize for Best Economics Dissertation (1992)
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (1996)
- Kenneth J. Arrow Award for Best Paper in Health Economics (2005)
- Juan Luis Londoño Prize for Best Paper (2015)
- MacArthur Fellowship (1997)
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003)
- Fellow of the Econometric Society (2008)
- Member, National Academy of Sciences (2020)
Selected Publications
Books
- Kremer, Michael; Glennerster, Rachel (2004). Strong Medicine: Creating Incentives for Pharmaceutical Research on Neglected Diseases.
See also
In Spanish: Michael Kremer para niños
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates
