Angus Deaton focuses on poverty in India
By Sreekanth A Nair
Angus Deaton, who has been awarded Nobel Prize for economics this year, has a close connection with India.
Deaton, who received Nobel for his works on consumption poverty and welfare, has published several research papers on Indian poverty and health. His current research focuses on the determinants of health in rich and poor countries, as well as on the measurement of poverty in India and around the world.
As an important developing country, India has been one of his focal areas. Studies in India have contributed largely to his works, especially in shaping his views on income, consumption and poverty.
In his autobiographical article ‘Puzzles and Paradoxes: A Life in Applied Economics’, the Princeton University professor says “In India today, which has been and is experiencing historically high rates of economic growth, we see another very strange food-related fact, which is that per capita calorie consumption has been falling for the past two decades. This is happening in spite of rising per capita incomes, even among the poor, and in spite of the fact that Indian men, women and children suffer one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world.â€
In the research paper ‘Food and nutrition in India: Facts and interpretations’, published along with Jean Dreze, it is noted that average calorie intake have been declined in India, in spite of increase in income and no long term increase in the relative price of food.
The paper states that “One hypothesis is that calorie requirements have declined due to lower levels of physical activity or improvements in the health environment. If correct, this does not imply that there are no calorie deficits in the Indian population – nothing could be further from the truth. These deficits are reflected in some of the worst anthropometric indicators in the world, and the sluggish rate of improvement of these indicators is of major concern. Yet recent trends remain confused and there is an urgent need for better nutrition monitoringâ€.
Price trends in India and their implications for measuring poverty, Data and dogma: the great Indian poverty debate, Health and wealth among the poor: India and South Africa compared, Prices and poverty in India are some of Deaton’s papers about India.
The Nobel Prize foundation said, “Deaton receives this year’s prize in Economic Sciences for three related achievements: the system for estimating the demand for different goods that he and John Muellbauer developed around 1980; the studies of the link between consumption and income that he conducted around 1990; and the work he has carried out in later decades on measuring living standards and poverty in developing countries with the help of household surveysâ€.
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