Nobel Prize For Brit

British academic Angus Deaton has been awarded the Nobel economics prize for 2015 for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.

17:28 14 October 2015

British academic Angus Deaton, the 69-year-old Princeton University professor, has been awarded the Nobel economic prize for his research that focuses on health, wellbeing, and economic development.

 

Torsten Persson, secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences award committee, said that Professor Deaton’s work has been very influential in the academic community and enormous influence particularly in India where the government had reshaped its measurement of poverty. 

 

"More than anyone else, Angus Deaton has enhanced this understanding. By linking detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes, his research has helped transform the fields of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and development economics."

 

The work for which Professor Deaton has been honoured revolved around three questions:

 

·       How do consumers distribute their spending among different goods?

 

·       How much of society's income is spent and how much is saved?

 

·       How do we best measure and analyse welfare and poverty?

 

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"His research has uncovered important pitfalls when comparing the extent of poverty across time and place," the committee said.

 

The award includes prize money of 8m Swedish kronor (£637,000, $950,000).