Poverty alleviation core of development economics

After Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were awarded the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for their outstanding contributions to "experimental research" into the "daunting issue" of global poverty, many have questioned the Nobel Committee's choice, with some saying China's poverty alleviation efforts have been the most effective in the world and are more worthy of study. Quite a few have even said China deserves the Nobel Prize for economics for successfully lifting about 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades.

But since the three winners are experts in development economics, this year's Nobel Prize for economics is seen as highlighting the global need for eradicating poverty and achieving common economic growth.

Since the end of World War II, the gap between developing and developed countries, in general, has widened, instead of narrowing. Around the world, 600-700 million people still live below the subsistence level, and 100 million children are stunted by malnutrition. At a time when the global economy is facing tremendous downward pressure and the gap between the rich and poor is widening, the awarding of the Nobel Prize for economics to the three development economists is of great practical significance.