Dr. Amartya Sen, author of several titles published by Oxford University Press, has won the 1998 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Dr. Sen was born in Shantiniketan in West Bengal, India in 1933. He received his bachelor's degree from Presidency College, Calcutta and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1959. He has been a professor in India, the UK, and the USA and has received numerous awards and honors. In 1998 he left his professorship in economics and philosophy at Harvard University to become Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was previously a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford from 1977 to 1980, and the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at All Souls from 1980 to 1987.

Professor Amartya Sen has made a number of key contributions to the research on fundamental problems in welfare economics, and opened up new fields of study for subsequent generations of researchers. By combining tools from economics and philosophy, he has restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of vital economic problems. His books on Economic Inequality and Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, published by Oxford University Press, were cited in the Nobel Prize report. The prize is worth 7.6 million Swede. Crowns (ca. 963,000 US$). Sen is one of the few sole recipients of the Nobel Prize in a scientific field, which is generally shared.

Cites the Royal Academy of sciences, "... his contributions range from axiomatic theory of social choice, over definitions of welfare and poverty indexes to empirical studies of famine. Sen has clarified the conditions which permit aggregation of individual values into collective decisions, and the conditions which permit rules for collective decision making that are consistent with a sphere of rights for the individual... In empirical studies Sen's applications of his theoretical approach have enhanced our understanding of the economic mechanisms underlying famines..... Sen's best-known work is his book: Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Here he challenges the common view that a shortage of food is the most important (sometimes the only) explanation for famine. On the basis of a careful study of a number of such catastrophes in India, Bangladesh and Saharan countries from the 1940s onwards he found other explanatory factors.. he argues that fami! nes have occurred even when the supply of food was not significantly lower than during previous years without famines or that famine-stricken areas have sometimes exported food.... Sen shows that a profound understanding of famine requires a thorough analysis of how various social and economic factors influence different groups of society and determine their actual opportunities... Later works discuss in a similar spirit how to prevent famine, or how to limit the effects of famine once it has occurred. Even though a few critics have questioned the validity of some empirical results in 'Poverty and Famines', the book is undoubtedly a key contribution to development economics",

In accepting the award, Professor Sen said: "I am particularly pleased about their identification of the field of work as justification for the award. Welfare economics and social choice are very important fields of study in which many people have done excellent work, and I am happy that the subject receives the recognition it deserves."