Amartya Sen

The Philosopher Economist

Santiniketan seasoned Sen
Cambridge enlarged his ken.
Invaluable we declare
His contributions to Economics of Welfare:
Economics is ‘demand and supply’,
‘Its focus is but Man’ is his reply.
Problems of famine and poverty
Have engrossed the rare Master of Trinity.
Christened ‘Amartya’ by Tagore,
Each a great mind and humanist to the core.



Born in Santiniketan on 3 November, 1933, Amartya Sen studied at Santiniketan, Presidency College, Calcutta University and Trinity College (Cambridge University ).
He became Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University (1956), Delhi University (1963-71), London School of Economics (1971-77), Oxford (1977-80), Drummond (1980-88), Harvard (1988-1998), Master of Trinity College, Cambridge since 1998.

He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his contributions to Welfare Economics. Welfare Economics was once considered to be a non-subject by prominent economists including Richard Kahn and Joan Robinson.

He is probably the second economist after Adam Smith to have occupied the chair of a Professor of Economics and Professor of Philosophy simultaneously in Harvard.

Presently he is Lamont University Professor at Harvard, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University . He was Lamont University Professor at Harvard also earlier, from 1988 – 1998.

Amartya Sen’s books have been translated into more than thirty languages, and include Collective Choice and Social Welfare (1970), On Economic Inequality (1973, 1997), Poverty and Famines (1981), Choice, Welfare and Measurement (1982), Resources, Values and Development (1984), On Ethics and Economics (1987), The Standard of Living (1987), Inequality Reexamined (1992), Development and Freedom (1999), and Rationality and Freedom (2002), The Argumentative Indian (2005), and Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (2006), among others.

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.

Sen was inspired by the ideas of thinkers such as Adam Smith, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume and Jeremy Bentham (British Classical Economists). He analysed various thoughts and concepts on which human happiness depends. He combined in his analysis – philosophy, economics, mathematics, human rights, management, ethics etc. – for solving the problems of poverty and hunger. He constantly strives to raise the status of Economics from a dismal science to that of a powerful instrument of social development based on ethics.

His first book CHOICE OF TECHNIQUES (1960) is a modified version of a dissertation written in 1955-57 for a Prize Fellowship of Trinity College, Cambridge , later on submitted for a Ph.D degree (1958-59) under Maurice Dobb. The book examines the contradictions involved in respect of the alternative techniques of production available to an underdeveloped economy which are agricultural and labour dominated, and throws light on the concept of disguised unemployment, fully supported by lucid diagrams. Joan Robinson studied the problem of disguised unemployment and like her, Sen believed that relatively capital intensive technique could score over labour intensive techniques in the long run.

In the early 1950s Kenneth J. Arrow forwarded a Social Choice Theory to suggest that a sum total of individual preference would lead to a collective or social choice. But he showed that under a set of circumstances, democratic decision making will be ruled out and a dictator would have to determine the collective or social choice. The theoretical problems involved in aggregating individual preferences led to his so-called Impossibility Theorem, which seemed an insurmountable obstacle to progress in normative economics. Sen overcame Arrow’s pessimism by developing and refining the latter’s analysis in his monograph COLLECTIVE CHOICE AND SOCIAL WELFARE (1970). He pointed out that information regarding inter-personal comparability of utilities and comparability of happiness would make a way out of the situation. This opened up a whole new vista of welfare economics and non-dictatorial social choice.

Sen witnessed the Bengal Famine (1943, World War II period: harvest was plentiful but food stored for allied troops in case of Japanese invasion) that destroyed more than three million people and the Dhaka communal riots (1946) leading to social deprivation during his childhood days. He found evidence of famine even without food shortage: a famine caused not by food stuff shortage but by lack of purchasing power (which he termed “boom famine”). Paradoxically some famine stricken nations even exported food. The newly independent nation of Bangladesh witnessed famine (1974) and there was China’s case too (1958-62): regimentation during Mao Tse Dung’s times whose policy was to give no publicity to it. According to him there is no famine in democratic nations and where the press is free. His analysis of famines which shows his abiding interest in the problem of social deprivation and social development vis-à-vis the process of economic development, is found in his POVERTY AND FAMINES-AN ESSAY ON ENTITLEMENTS AND DEPRIVATION (1981).

He supports globalization and market reforms, but he is convinced that liberalization without creation of social opportunities like education, health, land reforms, administration, micro-credit, gender differences, deprivation of women and neglect of the children will lead to social deprivation and unfair competition. He says, “It is not a question of more or less government but what kind (quality) of government.” In India and Pakistan government over-activity in industry and under-activity in the health and education sector have proved counter productive. His study with Jean Dreze, INDIA – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL OPPORTUNITY (1995) shows that the basic thrust of India’s economic reforms is right but inadequate as a method of dealing with India’s enormous problems. They suggested cuts in military expenditure to make provision for the social sector.

He wrote ON ECONOMIC INEQUALITY (1973) and INEQUALITY RE-EXAMINED (1992). In his latter book he analyses the nature and content of equality. The issue, according to him is not ‘whether equality’ but “equality of what?’ Egalitarians may demand income equality or welfare equality or equal weights on utility of all or a whole gamut of rights and liberties. But attainment of one egalitarian goal is not without sacrificing another. The freedom to achieve human capacity building is an ethical requirement, which will remove social deprivations.

Poverty Index: Sen developed a poverty index by combining the concepts of absolute and relative poverty. This is regarded as a major contribution to both theoretical and applied Economics. Sen opposed the ‘head count’ approach which defined the poverty line. He emphasized three different variables while developing his index of poverty:
(1) The number of poor people and total population below the poverty line, ‘H’.
(2) The distance between the total poor population and the poverty line, ‘T’, i.e., the total poor people in the society (can be expressed as a ratio).
(3) Index of probability of inequality of poverty among the poor, ‘G’.

Sen added ‘G’ to the existing ‘H’ and ‘T’ in contemporary studies. If all are equally poor, ‘G’ is not needed, otherwise all the three variables are equally important. Mathematically,
P= f (H,T,G)

This is called Sen’s Index. According to him the index must be so constructed that it fulfils four conditions:
(a) If income of a person below poverty line falls drastically, it must be reflected in the index.
(b) If income of a rich person above the poverty line decreases but he has not become poor, or if income of a poor person increases but he has not become rich, such a situation must be reflected in the index.
(c) The index will emphasize on poverty, not on society’s materialism – this thought should be reflected.
(d) That there is inequality of poverty even below the poverty line must be reflected in the index.
The variable ‘G’ is of particular importance for the last condition. The practical value of the index is tremendous, not only in knowing the number of poor, but in devising anti-poverty measures. It also helps in comparing poverty conditions in different nations.

Human Development Index: In association with his close friend Mahbub–ul Haque, Sen developed new indices of development which found expression in United Nations Development Program (UNDP)’s Human Development Report.
The Human Development Index (HDI) = (LEI+EAI+ARPII) / 3,
where,
LEI= Life Expectancy Index
EAI=Educational Attainment Index
ARPII=Adjusted Real Per Capita Income Index.

Gender inequalities: Prior to Sen, there was no elaborate discussion on economic inequality between men and women. He wrote an article titled “Missing Women” in the British Journal. According to him, the main problem in India is not population explosion; it is an offshoot of other problems. If men and women receives equal nutrition, equal health care, equal educational opportunities, then female fertility rate decreases, as a result of which population growth rate will diminish.

There are millions of missing women – killed by discrimination – on account of less food and medical care as compared to boys and men.

There is the high-touch (philosophical) origin to Economics as well as the high-tech (engineering) one. The former is about ethics, conduct, behaviour, achievement and the nature of good life; the latter is about output, inputs, production function, linear programming and general equilibrium. Often there has been too much of engineering and intellectual models in Economics but very little of philosophy and human touch. According to Sen, there is need for more focus on the philosophical side at present.