Nobel laureate Michael Kremer to become World Bank chief economist

Thursday 17 September 2026 - 15:55

The World Bank has appointed Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer as its next chief economist and senior vice president for development economics, placing an influential advocate of evidence-based policy at the center of the institution's global research and development agenda.

Kremer, a professor at the University of Chicago and co-recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, will succeed Indermit Gill. His appointment takes effect on October 1, 2026, according to the World Bank.

The appointment comes as developing economies face a combination of heavy debt burdens, constrained public finances and persistent pressure to generate employment and improve access to essential services. The World Bank has also highlighted the potential of new technologies to support growth and development.

From economic research to large-scale development

Kremer has built his academic career around testing whether development policies actually produce measurable results. Together with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, he received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics for an experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

His research has covered education, healthcare, agriculture, finance and technological innovation in developing countries. Rather than relying exclusively on theoretical models, his work has frequently used randomized controlled trials to assess interventions and determine which approaches can be expanded.

That research has contributed to programs operating on a substantial scale. The World Bank says work informed by Kremer's research on school-based deworming has contributed to the delivery of around two billion treatments to children in Africa and South Asia since 2014. His work on vaccine financing also helped shape an Advance Market Commitment that supported pneumococcal vaccine access in developing countries.

A focus on jobs, investment and technology

The World Bank's announcement places job creation among the central challenges facing the institution. President Ajay Banga pointed to the more than 1.2 billion young people expected to reach working age during the coming decade, underlining the scale of the employment challenge facing developing economies.

Kremer has also identified private capital mobilization, healthcare and education as key areas requiring new approaches. At the same time, he has emphasized the role of data and emerging technologies in helping governments and businesses respond to development challenges.

His recent research includes digital agriculture and artificial-intelligence-based agricultural weather forecasting. According to the World Bank, these initiatives have informed government programs reaching more than 50 million people across Africa and South Asia.

Bringing experimental economics closer to policy

Kremer's new position will extend beyond academic research. As chief economist, he will help lead the World Bank Group's research, data and analytical agenda, linking economic evidence to the institution's policy work and development operations.

His appointment also reflects the Bank's stated effort to strengthen the connection between research and implementation. The institution says it wants evidence and data to play a stronger role in shaping policies, investments and scalable solutions.

For Kremer, the challenge will be to translate experimental findings into policies that can operate across countries with very different institutions, resources and economic conditions.

A new chapter at the World Bank

Kremer joins the institution after serving as director of the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago. Before returning to Chicago, he held the Gates Professorship of Developing Societies at Harvard University. He has also been involved in initiatives designed to finance and scale development innovations.

His arrival marks a transition from Indermit Gill, who became the World Bank's chief economist and senior vice president for development economics in September 2022. Gill's work at the institution included research on growth, poverty, inequality, labor markets, debt and the so-called middle-income trap.

Kremer will now take responsibility for helping shape the economic research agenda of one of the world's leading development institutions. His record of combining experimental research with programs designed for large-scale implementation is likely to be particularly relevant as the World Bank seeks practical responses to employment, investment, technology and human-development challenges.