The great escape

Angus Deaton

Why I looked at this book

I'm hoping this book has some suggestions about what can be done about the inequality in today's world, and the links between wealth and health look to be of interest. I've also heard that the Nobel prize winning author Angus Deaton has done work related to my interest in Agent based computational modelling, so I'll be looking to see whether any of that is mentioned in this book.

First impressions

Deaton describes the increase in wellbeing for much of the world's population, both in financial terms and in terms of health. The countries in the West pulled ahead a few centuries ago, and more recently other countries have been catching up. He recognises that there is still great inequality in the world, and I'm interested to see how much he thinks that this is an inevitable price to pay for general increase in prosperity. I'm also looking forward to reading his ideas of what can be done for those who are still in poverty.