Deaton Wins Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

Princeton University Professor Angus Deaton, an NBER research associate for more than three decades, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.

"To design economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, we must first understand individual consumption choices," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement announcing the award. "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."

In his more recent research, the prize committee said, Deaton has highlighted "how reliable measures of individual household consumption levels can be used to discern mechanisms behind economic development. His research has uncovered important pitfalls when comparing the extent of poverty across time and place. It has also exemplified how the clever use of household data may shed light on such issues as the relationships between income and calorie intake, and the extent of gender discrimination within the family."

Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs and a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. A native of Scotland, he earned his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and holds both British and American citizenship.

Deaton has authored or co-authored dozens of working papers. His recent papers include Suicide, Age, and Wellbeing: an Empirical Investigation, with Anne Case, and Creative Destruction and Subjective Wellbeing, with Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, and Alexandra Roulet. He is affiliated with seven NBER research programs: Aging, Children, Development, Economic Fluctuations and Growth, Education, Health Care, and Public Economics.