EXACTLY 200 years after Thomas Malthuspredicted starvation caused by overpopulation and scarce food, Amartya Sen haswon a Nobel prize for economics partly for proving that Malthus was wrong. TheIndian economist, who this year became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge,was officially awarded the prize for his work on welfare economics. Called “theconscience of the profession” by another Nobel laureate, Robert Solow, Mr Senhas merged philosophy with economics.
在马尔萨斯预测了由过剩人口和稀缺食物引发饥荒整整200年后，阿马蒂亚·森（AmartyaSen）因为部分地证明马尔萨斯是错误的而获得了诺贝尔经济学奖。这位今年成为剑桥三一学院院长的印度经济学家已经因为对福利经济学的研究而被正式授予了这个奖项。被另一位诺奖得主罗伯特·索洛（Robert Solow）称为“学界良心”的森融合了经济学和哲学。
In his 1981 book “Poverty and Famines: AnEssay on Entitlement and Deprivation”, Mr Sen challenged the prevailing wisdomthat declining food supply is the most important cause of famine. Why, Mr Senasked, has famine often occurred in countries where the supply of food per headis no lower than in previous years? He concluded that there are social andeconomic factors at work that limit the economic opportunities of certaingroups and so cause starvation.
在他1981年的著作《贫困与饥荒：论权利与剥夺》（Poverty and Famines: An Essayon Entitlement and Deprivation）中，森挑战了日趋减少的食物供应是饥荒的最重要原因的主流观念。森问道：为什么饥荒经常发生在人均食物供应不再低于之前年份的国家？他的结论是：这是因为存在着限制特定人群机会的社会和经济因素在起作用，因而才引起饥荒。
In addition to his work in developmenteconomics, Mr Sen earned a reputation in the 1970s for significantly advancingthe field of social-choice theory. Building on work done previously by anothereconomist, Kenneth Arrow (who won the Nobel Prize in 1972), Mr Sen argued thatinequality ought to be a fundamental consideration in collective action. Tothis end, he developed several indices with which to measure the welfare ofindividuals in society. His “poverty index” took into account not only theproportion of a society living below the poverty line, but also the degree ofpoverty among the most destitute. Mr Sen's work has been used by othereconomists not only to compare the welfare of individuals across society, butalso of countries around the world.
除了发展经济学方面的研究，森还因为显著推进社会选择理论而在70年代名声大振。基于另一位经济学家（1972年获得诺贝尔奖的）肯尼斯·阿罗（Kenneth Arrow ）之前的研究，森指出，不平等应当成为集体行动中的一个根本关切。为此，他提出了多个用以衡量个人在社会中的福利的指数。他的“贫困指数”不仅加入了生活在贫困线下的社会比例，还将最贫困人群的贫困程度纳入其中。森的研究不仅一直被其他经济学家用来比较跨社会的个人福利，而且还被用来比较世界各国的个人福利。
The choice of Mr Sen is ironic. Last year'slaureates, Myron Scholes and Robert Merton, won their prize for work on thepricing of risk. As partners in Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund thatnearly collapsed, their work has recently made a lot of rich peoplepoorer—themselves included. Mr Sen's work, in contrast, was aimed at making thepoor better off. And Mr Sen himself is now $1m the richer.
森的选择具有讽刺意味。去年的得主——斯科尔斯和默顿——曾因为他们为风险定价的研究而获奖。作为即将崩塌的对冲基金——长期资本管理公司的合伙人，他们的研究近来让包括他们自己的许多富人一贫如洗。相比之下，森的研究的目的是让穷人过上好日子，而且他自己的身价现在也涨了100万美元.
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