Angus Deaton

Angus Deaton is a Scottish-American economist whose research on consumption, poverty, and welfare earned him the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

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Consumption function: An economic relationship describing how consumption expenditure varies with income and other influences. Deaton’s research examined how households allocate spending over time and across goods.
Almost Ideal Demand System: A flexible model of consumer demand developed by Angus Deaton and John Muellbauer. This model formalized how prices and household budgets shape demand across goods.
John Muellbauer: A British economist known for research on consumer demand, housing, and macroeconomics. Muellbauer co-developed the Almost Ideal Demand System with Deaton.
Global poverty: The condition of people living with resources insufficient to meet basic needs, considered across countries. Deaton’s work examined how global poverty is measured and how its trends are interpreted.
Consumption smoothing: The practice of maintaining relatively stable consumption despite changes in income over time. Deaton’s work tested how households use saving and borrowing to buffer income fluctuations.
Household survey: A structured collection of information about households, often covering income, spending, and living conditions. Household surveys provide the detailed expenditure data central to Deaton’s work.
Demand system: A set of equations describing consumer demand for multiple goods as prices and income change. Deaton’s demand research developed tools for estimating these linked spending choices.
Princeton University: A private research university in Princeton, New Jersey, founded in 1746. Deaton was a professor at Princeton during the period of his Nobel-recognized research.
World Bank: An international financial institution that provides financing and expertise to developing countries. World Bank poverty estimates rely on the international price comparisons Deaton studied.
Poverty measurement: The methods used to define, estimate, and compare poverty across populations and time. His critiques exposed how data choices and price conversions alter poverty counts.