Angus Deaton wins Nobel Prize for Economics

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: British economist Angus Deaton on Monday won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. An 8 million Swedish crown ($978,000) prize has been announced for Deaton.

69-year-old Deaton's research has focused  on the determinants of health in rich and poor countries, as well as on the measurement of poverty in India and around the world, his website reads. It further states that he also maintain a long-standing interest in the analysis of household surveys.

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

"More than anyone else, Angus Deaton has enhanced this understanding," the award-giving body further stated.

The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It was not part of the original group of awards set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel's 1895 will.