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|October 14, 1998||
Sen wins Nobel for contribution to welfare economics
Prof Amartya Sen, an Indian expert on poverty and hunger who teaches at Britain's Trinity College in Cambridge, today won the Nobel economics prize.
He was awarded the prestigious prize 'for his contributions to welfare economics,' which have helped in the understanding of the economic mechanisms underlying famines and poverty, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation. He is the sixth Indian to win the prize.
Prof Sen, 64, has done work including studying the Bangladesh famine of 1974 and other catastrophes in India, Bangladesh and countries of the Sahara. Prof Sen joined Trinity College this year after teaching at Harvard University, among other institutions.
Prof Sen's work deals with development economics, the study of the welfare of the world's poorest people. His best-known work challenges the common view that the shortage of food is the most important explanation of famine.
On the basis of studies of several catastrophes, he shows that "famines have occurred even when the supply of food was not significantly lower than during previous years'', the citation said.
Part of his explanation of the 1974 Bangladesh famine is that flooding throughout the country significantly raised food prices, while work opportunities for agricultural workers declined as one of the crops could not be harvested. Due to these factors, the real incomes of agricultural workers declined so much that this group was disproportionately stricken by starvation.
Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi, Shobha Warrier in Madras and D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram. Additional reportage: UNI
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