http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/economics-nobel-honors-trio-taking-experimental-approach-fighting-poverty

Economists may not build gigantic atom-smashers or gene-sequencing facilities, but they can still perform rigorous experiments. This year's Nobel Prize in economics honors three researchers who pioneered the use of randomized controlled trials to determine how best to ameliorate global poverty. Michael Kremer of Harvard University and Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge will split the roughly $900 million prize. The three have often worked together and form an intellectual team, other economists say.

"We all knew that they would win, just not so early in their careers," says Sandra Sequeria, a development economist at the London School of Economics. Kremer is 54 years old, Banerjee is 58, and Duflo is 46. While many Nobel prizes honor discoveries made long ago, this year's economics prize goes to work still gaining momentum at foundations and development agencies around the world, says Sylvie Lambert, a development economist at the Paris School of Economics. "It's an ongoing project," she says. "This is the frontier."