The Contributions of Amartya K. Sen to Development Economics

The Contributions of Amartya K. Sen to Development Economics

By

Dr. Srinivasulu Bayineni
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
Yogi Vemana University
KADAPA – 516003
Andhra Pradesh
Mobile: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]

“Ours is also a world of extraordinary deprivation and of astonishing inequality. Millions perish every week from diseases that can be completely eliminated, or at least prevented from killing people with abandon”.

--- Amartya Sen

Background

Amartya Kumar Sen (AKS) born 3rd November, 1933 is a Bengali economist. Sen is known as ‘the Conscience and the Mother Teresa of Economics’ for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics and the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality and political liberalism. In 1998, Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to work on welfare economics. A. K. Sen is currently the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. Sen has taught at a dozen of the world’s most prestigious universities, including Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard and the London School of Economics. He is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a fellow of Trinity College, London and previously served as the Master from year 1998 to 2004. He is the first Indian academic to head an Oxbridge College. Sen’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages. He is a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security. He has received over 80 honorary doctorates. In the year 2010, Time magazine listed him among the 100 most influential persons in the world.

Among the awards he has received are the “Bharat Ratna” (the highest honour awarded by the President of India); the Senator Giovanni Agnelli International Prize in Ethics; the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award; the Edinburgh Medal; the Brazilian Ordem do Merito Cientifico (Grã-Cruz); the Presidency of the

References: • Drèze, J. and Sen, A. K. (1989): Hunger and Public Action, Clarendon, Oxford. • Drèze, J. and Sen, A. K. (2002): India: Development and Participation, Oxford University Press, Oxford. • Sen, A. K. (1981): Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Clarendon, Oxford. • Sen, A. K. (1987): On Ethics and Economics, Blackwell, Oxford. • Sen, A. K. (1992): Inequality Reexamined, Clarendon, Oxford. • Sen, A. K. (1999): Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press, Oxford. • Sen, A. K. (1999): ‘Human Rights and Economic Achievements’, in J. R. Bauer and D. A. Bell (eds): The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. • Sen, Amartya (1999): Development as Freedom, Random House, New York. • UNDP (2000): Human Development Report 2000: Human Rights and Human Development, Oxford University Press, New York. • Sabina Alkire (2002): Valuing Freedoms: Sen’s Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford. • Vizard, P. (2005): Poverty and Human Rights: Sen’s ‘Capability Perspective’ Explored, Oxford University Press, Oxford. • World Bank (1998): Development and Human Rights: The Role of the World Bank, The World Bank, Washington.