Poor countries face a much different challenge.
Advertisement
“I was not lying in bed at six o’clock this morning thinking ‘oh that phone call should come, ‘” the 69-year-old academic told a news conference at Princeton University, where he is a professor.
A Scottish economist who has fiercely criticized western aid to the developing world has been awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics for his pioneering work measuring poverty around the globe.
So this richly deserved Nobel Prize probably does say a lot about where the economics profession is going. Most people on planet Earth are much better off than their ancestors. Turning serious, he said he would just like to get back to work.
“I still feel a little bit like we might pinch ourselves and wake up and I’ll be back in bed and it will be an ordinary day”, Deaton said.
Deaton’s insight was that models needed to account for heterogenous individuals making consumption choices not only based on the changing price of one good, but of many other goods in the market, as well as credit and demographic conditions. “Fortunately, my father didn’t think that way”.
Angus Deaton, a renowned microeconomist, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science on Monday for his studies of consumption, poverty and welfare. “And I say, no, I wouldn’t”, Deaton said.
President Eisgruber said Mr. Deaton is a leader in the field of economics and has been a mentor to countless students. After teaching at Cambridge and the University of Bristol, he continued his economics career in the US.
Angus Deaton enhanced the understanding in design of economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, the royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which makes the awards said in a statement. He chides American economists such as Harvard’s Greg Mankiw who have dismissed the importance of inequality, and praises Thomas Piketty for gathering data on the super-rich. Though he is not deterministic, Deaton paints a largely hopeful picture of humanity reminiscent of the views of Julian Simon, whom he cites. His work is sophisticated and careful, but also passionate.
His surprising conclusion: They didn’t.
Deaton is physically imposing. And he isn’t reluctant to voice strong opinions.
“There is much to be said for equality of opportunity, and for not penalizing people for the success that comes from their own hard work”, Deaton wrote in his 2013 book, The Great Escape. “His work is based on being meticulous at every stage”. Deaton claimed the award for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. It’s one person at a time who’s in poverty. You can read the entire review here.
Angus Deaton, born 1945 in Britain, is British and United States citizen.
But past year Deaton wrote that he anxious that high-paying jobs in finance and other fields were diverting talented young people from “more worthwhile pursuits”.
“In effect, India and the world have become poorer because India has become richer!”
Monday’s announcement concluded the selection of this year’s Nobel winners. Their data showed “emotional well-being” peaking at an income of around $75,000; at lower incomes, people have a tougher time handling “misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone”.
Advertisement
In 1978, Professor Deaton was the first recipient of the Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society, and was Editor of Econometrica from 1984-1988.
