Angus Deaton quotes

Angus Deaton is a British economist renowned for his work on consumption, poverty, and welfare. His research has greatly influenced development economics and social policy worldwide. He received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. Here are 45 of his quotes:

Political and legal institutions play a central role in setting the environment that can nurture prosperity and economic growth.

Angus Deaton

Inequality is not the same thing as unfairness; and, to my mind, it is the latter that has incited so much political turmoil in the rich world today.

Angus Deaton

The Nobel thing is like dying and going to heaven for a while. It's like being transported to a fairyland.

Angus Deaton

The people who hate immigrants are people who have never met them!

Angus Deaton

It's a murky world out there, and it's hard to figure things out sometimes.

Angus Deaton

The World Bank adjusts its poverty estimates for differences in prices across countries, but it ignores differences in needs.

Angus Deaton

Trade, migration, and modern communications have given us networks of friends and associates in other countries. We owe them much, but the social contract with our fellow citizens at home brings unique rights and responsibilities that must sometimes take precedence, especially when they are as destitute as the world's poorest people.

Angus Deaton

I believe, as do most people, that we have an obligation to assist the truly destitute.

Angus Deaton

If someone thinks of something, some new innovation that benefits us all, and the market works properly, they get richly rewarded for that, and that's just terrific, and that creates inequality.

Angus Deaton

I really don't think we've become a plutocracy, but I worry about the enormous influence that money has in a democracy such as ours.

Angus Deaton

After a day's fishing, I'll know the solution to something or have good ideas that were not accessible before.

Angus Deaton

Those of us who were lucky enough to be born in the right countries have a moral obligation to reduce poverty and ill health in the world.

Angus Deaton

Success breeds inequality, and you don't want to choke off success.

Angus Deaton

Without effective states working with active and involved citizens, there is little chance for the growth that is needed to abolish global poverty.

Angus Deaton

We are trying to say that low income and low job opportunities, after a long period of time, tears at the social fabric.

Angus Deaton

You accumulate emotional wisdom as you get older. You know, when you're 25, you go on blind dates with people that, when you're 50, you know to stay away from.

Angus Deaton

Parents tend to value their lives more highly than people without kids, but they're different in lots of ways: They're richer. They're better educated. They're healthier.

Angus Deaton

People who have children, by and large, want children. People who don't want children are people who, by and large, don't want to have children. And why would you expect one set to be happier than another?

Angus Deaton

There is much that remains mysterious about why some countries grow rapidly and some grow slowly.

Angus Deaton

High quality, open, transparent, and uncensored data are needed to support democracy.

Angus Deaton

Policies aimed at reversing globalization will lead only to a decrease in real income as goods become more expensive.

Angus Deaton

A good theoretical account must explain all of the evidence that we see. If it doesn't work everywhere, we have no idea what we are talking about, and all is chaos.

Angus Deaton