Economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of M.I.T., and Harvard’s Michael Kremer have spent more than 20 years helping to start a movement in global poverty research.

On Monday, their experimental approach toward poverty alleviation won them the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences — making Ms. Duflo, 46, the youngest laureate ever and the second woman to win the distinction.

“It really reflects the fact that it has become a movement, a movement that is much larger than us,” Professor Duflo said, speaking at a news conference shortly after learning of the award.

The three researchers have taken a scientific approach to studying problems like education deficiencies and child health.

They break those issues into smaller questions, and then search for evidence about which interventions work to resolve them.

“In just two decades, their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field of research,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

More than 5 million Indian children have benefited from effective remedial tutoring thanks to one of their studies, the release noted, while other work of theirs has inspired public investment in preventive health cares

Abhijit Banerjee, born in 1961 in Mumbai, earned his doctorate from Harvard. He is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Esther Duflo, born in 1972 in Paris, is the second woman and the youngest person to be awarded the economics prize. She has a doctorate from M.I.T., where she is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics.

Michael Kremer, born in 1964, has a doctorate from Harvard, where he is the Gates Professor of Developing Societies.

Reactions

The researchers’ peers were quick to applaud the prize.

“Congratulations to Banerjee Duflo and Kremer on the Nobel and to the committee for making a prize that seemed inevitable happen sooner rather than later,” Richard Thaler, who won the award in 2017, said on Twitter.

“Fabulous news!” Cass Sunstein, a co-author with Mr. Thaler on a book about behavior economics and a professor at Harvard, wrote on Twitter. He described a recent study by one of the winners as “profound, implication-filled.”

Who won the 2018 Nobel for economics?

William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, who have studied climate change and technological innovation, were honored last year. Professor Nordhaus, of Yale University, is a proponent of a tax on carbon emissions as a way to address climate change. Although he has convinced many members of the economics profession about the benefits of a carbon tax, the federal government has yet to adopt one.

Professor Romer, of New York University, was cited for demonstrating how government policy could drive technological change. He noted the success of efforts to reduce emissions of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the 1990s.