Microeconomist Angus Deaton won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics

Microeconomist born in Edinburgh Angus Deaton on 12 October 2015 won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics. He was awarded for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.

The key to his work is measuring how public behaviour changes if, say, the government raises the VAT rate on food.

According to Nobel Committee, “by linking detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes, his research has helped transform the fields of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and development economics.”

Deaton, aged 69, is based at Princeton, where he researches health, wellbeing, and economic development. He is the Dwight D Eisenhower professor of economics and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.

The Nobel Prize in Economics is officially known as Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was established in 1968 and was not part of the original group of five awards established by the will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895.

French economist Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics. He was awarded for his analysis of market power and regulation.

Elinor Ostrom, in 2009 was the first and only woman (so far) to win the Nobel Prize for economics. She shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Oliver E. Williamson for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.