The World Bank has appointed Nobel laureate Michael Kremer as the Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, bringing one of the world’s foremost development economists to lead the institution’s research, data, and analytical agenda.
“Kremer is known not only for tackling real-world problems through innovative solutions grounded in rigorous research but also for translating his findings into programmes that have reached hundreds of millions of people, from expanding vaccine access and school health programmes to supporting smallholder farmers,” the Group said.
“I am pleased to welcome Michael to the World Bank Group. He joins us at a time when the world needs bold solutions to its most urgent development challenges, including creating jobs that meet the aspirations of more than 1.2 billion young people reaching working age in the coming decade,” said Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group.
“Michael has spent his career not just identifying what works in development but proving it at scale—and that is exactly the kind of thinking we need,” Banga added further.
“The World Bank Group has moved deliberately to strengthen the connection between knowledge and impact—ensuring that world-class research and data drive its analytical agenda, shape policies and scalable solutions across the public and private sectors, and inform the full range of investments, partnerships, and interventions it pursues around the world,” the global financial body said, while announcing Kremer’s appointment.
“The World Bank Group has tremendous research capacity to develop and test innovative solutions to development problems—and the operational reach to scale them up and improve people’s lives,” Kremer said.
“The challenges ahead are enormous, including creating jobs at scale, unlocking the private capital needed to fund development, and ensuring people have the health, education, and other services they need to thrive. At the same time, new technologies create huge opportunities to boost growth and human well-being. Data, evidence, and research can help firms and governments navigate both the challenges and opportunities. I am excited to work with staff across the Bank Group and partners around the world on this,” he added further.
With a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, Kremer currently serves as Director of the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where he is a University Professor.
Kremer has conducted research on a broad range of topics, including economic growth, technological change, and development economics.
In 2019, he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.
Their work used randomised controlled trials to generate reliable knowledge and identify, test, and scale practical solutions.
Kremer’s current research focuses on innovation in education, health, water, finance, and agriculture in developing countries.
With Rachel Glennerster, he proposed the use of Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) for vaccines and helped launch a USD 1.5 billion AMC for a pneumococcal vaccine with Gavi and the World Bank Group.
Vaccines purchased through the AMCs have reached 60 developing countries, tackling a leading cause of infant mortality. His research on deworming informed the scale-up by governments in Africa and South Asia, providing two billion deworming treatments to children since 2014.
Kremer is also the co-founder of “Precision Development”, which leverages digital technology to improve productivity and incomes for smallholder farmers.
He also co-founded USAID’s “Development Innovation Ventures,” which has invested in more than 300 innovations and reached over 200 million people.
Among many honours, Kremer is a MacArthur Fellow, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Presidential Faculty Fellow.
He is a co-founder of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development and a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to the University of Chicago, he was the Gates Professor of Developing Societies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University.