Richard H. Sabot Lecture Series

The Richard H. Sabot Lecture is held annually to honor the life and work of Richard “Dick” Sabot, a respected professor, celebrated development economist, successful Internet entrepreneur, and close friend of the Center for Global Development. As a founding member of CGD’s Board of Directors, Dick’s enthusiasm and intellect encouraged our beginnings. His work as a scholar and as a development practitioner helped to shape the Center’s vision of independent research and new ideas in the service of better development policies and practices.

Dick held a PhD in economics from Oxford University; he was professor of economics at Williams College, and he taught at Yale University, Oxford University, and Columbia University. He made numerous scholarly contributions in the fields of economics and international development, and he worked for ten years at the World Bank.

Launched with the support of Bruns Grayson and other members of the Board who served with Dick during the Center’s early years, the Sabot Lecture Series hosts each year a scholar-practitioner who has made significant contributions to international development, combining, as did Dick, academic work with leadership in the policy community.

We were pleased to have Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), present our Sixth Annual Richard H. Sabot Lecture. Her lecture drew upon a new book by Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, a J-PAL co-founder, titled Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. Duflo and Banerjee’s research has led them to identify wholly new aspects of the behavior of poor people, their needs, and the way that aid or financial investment can affect their lives.

Previous lectures are featured below.

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