Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has been called the "Mother Teresa of economics" for his work on famine, human development theory and welfare economics. He argues that social justice is more than a matter of intellectual discourse, and that the idea of justice influences how - and how well -- people live.
Sen offers a powerful critique of the mainstream theories of justice that, despite their many specific achievements, he argues, have taken us in the wrong direction.
Bio
Robert Saldich
Robert Saldich is the Chair of the Board of Governors at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, CA.
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen is a Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until recently the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was formerly Honorary President of OXFAM and is now its Honorary Advisor.
Amartya Sen's books have been translated into more than thirty languages. His research has ranged over a number of fields in economics, philosophy, and decision theory, including social choice theory, welfare economics, theory of measurement, development economics, public health, gender studies, moral and political philosophy, and the economics of peace and war.
Amartya Sen has received honorary doctorates from major universities in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American
Philosophical Society. He was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory. Time magazine listed him under "60 years of Asian Heroes" in 2006 and included him in their "100 most influential persons in the world" for 2010. New Statesman listed him in their 2010 edition of 'World's 50 Most Influential People Who Matter'.
(born Nov. 3, 1933, Santiniketan, India) Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in welfare economics and social choice. Sen is best known for his work on the causes of famine, and his research led to the development of solutions for limiting the effects of food shortages. After attending Presidency College in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Sen studied at Trinity College, University of Cambridge (B.A., 1955; M.A. and Ph.D., 1959). He taught economics at the Universities of Jadavpur (1956–58) and Delhi (1963–71), the London School of Economics, the University of London (1971–77), the University of Oxford (1977–88), and Harvard University (1988–98). In 1998 he was appointed master of Trinity College. His Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981) showed that declining wages, unemployment, rising food prices, and inefficient food distribution could lead to starvation. His views encouraged policy makers to maintain stable prices for food.
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