Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded for the study of the problems of poverty and consumption in the world – BBC

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to economist Angus Deaton Scottish. The amount of remuneration, which will get Deaton, 8 million Swedish kronor ($ 953 thousand.) – A couple dozen fewer than last year, due to the depreciation of the Swedish krona against the US dollar.

As the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday, the decision to award Deaton was made “for his analysis of consumption, poverty and well-being».

The study Deaton addresses issues such as the distribution of consumption expenditure between different products and methods of measurement and analysis of welfare and poverty. At a press conference after the announcement on the award Deaton said that he considered himself “someone who cares about the poor in the world and who are interested in what is a good life for the people».

«I wanted to sleep (Princeton was about 7:30 in the morning), but the message was very pleased to award the prize “, – joked Deaton in conversation with British newspaper Guardian. According to him, “what we are seeing – is the result of hundreds of years of uneven development in the world of the rich.” “Those who were left behind, too, want a better life, that put enormous pressure on the border between rich and poor – continued Deaton. – In the short term [to reduce the number of poor in the world] will help stabilize the political situation in the regions of armed conflict ».

69-year-old Professor Deaton, Doctor of Economics and International Relations, taught in Cambridge and the University of Bristol, and is currently working in the US Princeton University.

As stated in his biography posted on the official website of the university, the main directions of scientific activity Deaton centered around issues of prosperity and economic development, as well as the level of public health concern in relation to the level of wealth and poverty, the countries studied. Deaton is a member of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since April 2014, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in April of this year became a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA – a leading scientific organization of the United States, established by order of President Abraham Lincoln.

What Deaton became laureate in economics, has become quite unexpected news for the scientific community. In the list of the most likely winners Deaton did not appear.

According to the traditional annual forecast of Thomson Reuters, the first place in the list of likely winners of the “Nobel” of the economy was Sir Richard Blundell engaged microeconometric analysis of how political decisions affect the labor market and consumer demand, particularly as adverse economic conditions affect the household.

Two other potential candidates Thomson Reuters named John Liszt and Charles Manski. Liszt was researching that there are people in everyday life, in accordance with economic theory. Manski explored how people make choices between two alternatives, if the consequences of the choice are known only for one option.

The economic “Nobel»

Nobel Prize in Economics was not included in the original list of disciplines, created by Alfred Nobel and awarded since 1968.

This is the second consecutive year, when the agency Thomson Reuters not guess laureates in economics.

Last year, when the Nobel Prize was awarded to French economist Jean Tirole for his research in the area of ​​market regulation, Thomson Reuters also indicated his name the list of potential winners.

Recently, preference is given to economists, who were involved in the social aspects of economic development, said the director of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting RANHiGS Tatiana Malev.

«Not far off the end of the existence of universal models of consumption and stimulate consumer demand, so it is time to sum up – she said. – In the new economic conditions, consumption patterns are not only an important subject for analysis, but also to predict. We need to understand what will happen next, what parameters need to be used if the model suddenly end ».