Economics is changing: A Nobel for 3 pragmatic poverty-fighters shows that

This year’s economics Nobel prize went to three worthy economists —  Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Michael Kremer of Harvard University. The prize, which was awarded “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty,” shows several important ways that the economics discipline is changing. 

A popular conception of economists is that they’re the high priests of the free market, downplaying the role of government and giving short shrift to the needs of society’s poorest. A great many economists defy this stereotype, spending their careers studying how to uplift the poorest citizens of the developing