The World Bank Group appointed Michael Kremer as chief economist and senior vice president for development economics. His appointment takes effect on 1 October 2026. He will succeed Indermit Gill, who retired in August.
Kremer is a University Professor and director of the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago. He shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo for an experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. He previously taught at Harvard University, where he completed his doctorate in economics.
RESEARCH WITH OPERATIONAL REACH
Kremer's work has linked academic research with programmes in health, education and agriculture. The World Bank said his proposal for advance market commitments, developed with Rachel Glennerster, helped support a $1.5 billion pneumococcal-vaccine initiative with Gavi and the Bank. The resulting vaccines have reached 60 developing countries.
The Bank also cited evidence from Kremer's work on school-based deworming, which informed more than 2 billion treatments since 2014. It said his recent work on digital agriculture and artificial-intelligence weather forecasting had influenced programmes reaching more than 50 million people in Africa and South Asia.
MANDATE AND NEXT MILESTONE
Kremer will lead the institution's research, data and analytical agenda. The appointment places an economist with experience testing development interventions at the centre of the Bank's work on policy evidence and operational design. Reuters reported that he is the first person to join the institution as chief economist after already receiving a Nobel Prize.
His term begins shortly before the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Bangkok from 12 to 18 October. Those meetings will provide the first major public forum after he assumes the role. Subsequent research priorities and operational initiatives will show how his evidence-based approach is applied across the Bank Group.