If you ignore the French stereotyping included just to annoy Jerome, this is an interesting profile of Esther Duflo who is an associate of MIT professor Abhijit Banerjee, one of the pioneers of development economics. "Professor Banerjee says before Mme Duflo, theories of development economics existed and practical knowledge of aid programmes existed. She was one of the first to put them together systematically; to apply economic skills to discovering what was going wrong and adjusting policies..  "

The new face of the world-leading French intellectual is a brisk 36-year-old woman with the pleasant but no-nonsense look of a primary school teacher, who climbs mountains in her spare time.

She is Esther Duflo and was recently named one of the 100 most influential thinkers in the world (she came 91st)
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Mme Duflo is a "development economist" one of the world's greatest experts - perhaps the greatest - on why development programmes in poor countries often fail and why they sometimes succeed. Her precise field of expertise has existed less than a decade. She is among its inventors.
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She investigates, in elaborate detail, the practical, small things which can make a difference in trying to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor. For instance, not just "education, education, education" but how to make sure pupils and their teachers turn up at school. (Answer: tiny incentives, such as free meals or uniforms, can transform attendance in poor countries.)

Mme Duflo has, above all, developed and promoted the concept of "scientific" testing of anti-poverty programmes - what works and what doesn't but also, crucially, why things work and why they don't. She believes - and has proved - that the effectiveness of anti-poverty programmes can be explored by "random testing", in the same way pharmaceutical companies test drugs.