安格斯迪頓獲諾貝爾經濟學獎軼事

Angus Deaton, a British-born economist at Princeton University in the US, has won the Nobel Prize for economics for his pioneering work into what determines poverty and how people make their consumption decisions.

出生於英國、現在任職於美國普林斯頓大學(Princeton University)的經濟學家安格斯迪頓(Angus Deaton)因爲開創性的研究工作而獲得諾貝爾經濟學獎，他的研究揭示了哪些因素決定貧困，以及人們如何作出自己的消費決策。

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Mr Deaton was awarded the prize “for his analysis on consumption, poverty and welfare”.

瑞典皇家科學院(Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)表示，迪頓被授予該獎是因爲他“對消費、貧困和福利的分析”。

“[His research] shows an impressive breadth in its approaches: basic theory; statistical methods for testing theories; in-depth knowledge of the quality of existing data; and extensive work on producing new kinds of data.”

“（他的研究）在方法上展示了令人印象深刻的廣度：基本理論；用於測試理論的統計方法；對現有數據質量的深入把握；以及在產生新類型數據上的大量工作。”

A dual US and British citizen, Mr Deaton is the first native Briton to win the Nobel Prize in economics since Clive Granger in 2003. He joins a select list of academics who have won the SKr8m ($980,000) prize solo.

擁有美英雙重國籍的迪頓，是自2003年克萊夫格蘭傑(Clive Granger)贏得諾貝爾經濟學獎以來首位獲得這一殊榮的英裔學者。他成爲少數獨享800萬瑞典克朗（合98萬美元）獎金的學者之一。

Mr Deaton’s work has employed innovative statistical techniques to understand what drives people’s shopping habits and how governments can better foster economic development.

迪頓在研究中採用了創新的統計方法，以求理解哪些因素驅動着人們的購物習慣，政府如何更好地促進經濟發展。

He has spearheaded the use of more precise microeconomic data to understand what happens in an economy as a whole, questioning well-known assumptions and helping to solve apparent paradoxes on the relation between consumption and income.

他率先利用更精確的微觀經濟數據探究經濟體作爲一個整體在發生什麼，在此過程中質疑著名的假設，並幫助解決消費和收入之間貌似存在的矛盾。

“Natural scientists are often sniffy [about the Nobel Prize in economics] as they don’t regard it as scientific,” said John Muellbauer, an economist at Oxford university who has worked with Mr Deaton. “This is an exception, it is evidence-based economics of the highest standard.”

“自然科學家往往對（諾貝爾經濟學獎）嗤之以鼻，不承認經濟學也是科學。”牛津大學(Oxford university)經濟學家、曾與迪頓共事的約翰猠爾鮑爾(John Muellbauer)表示，“這是一個例外，它是最高標準的循證經濟學。”

For example, together with Mr Muellbauer, Mr Deaton compiled a system of equations to understand how consumer decisions regarding different goods interacted. This is essential for governments planning to make policy changes such as cutting value added tax for some products, as such decisions have varying effects on different groups of consumers depending on what they buy.

例如，迪頓曾與米爾鮑爾一起編寫了一個方程組，試圖描述消費者對於不同商品的決策是如何互動的。對於正在醞釀政策變化（比如降低針對某些產品的增值稅）的政府，這種理解是不可或缺的，因爲此類決策對不同的消費者羣體會產生不同的影響——取決於他們購買什麼。

He built on work looking at the link between consumption and income by fellow Nobel laureates Franco Modigliani and Milton Friedman to understand how changes in income drive changes in consumption. He warned against using aggregate data for the whole economy to justify important policy decisions and showed how it is essential to understand what happens to different groups of consumers, depending on their age or income levels.

他進一步發展了諾貝爾獎得主佛朗哥莫迪利亞尼(Franco Modigliani)和米爾頓弗裏德曼(Milton Friedman)對於消費和收入之間聯繫的研究，以求理解收入變化如何驅動消費變化。他警告不要使用整個經濟的彙總數據爲重要決策提供依據，並且證明，瞭解不同消費者羣體的具體情況（取決於他們的年齡或收入水平）是至關重要的。

Orazio Attanasio, an economist at University College London, said: “Angus Deaton is one of the few people who understands consumption behaviour deeply, both across individuals and over time.”

倫敦大學學院(University College London)經濟學家奧拉齊奧阿塔納西奧(Orazio Attanasio)表示：“安格斯迪頓是深刻理解消費行爲的極少數人之一，他對消費行爲的理解不僅涵蓋廣大個體，還涵蓋時間維度。”

Mr Deaton advocated the importance of building extensive data sets on consumption patterns to understand the determinants of poverty. Contrary to what was previously assumed, he showed that increasing people’s income leads to a better food intake. As a result, there was little empirical reason to orient aid programmes only towards food as opposed to economy growth, as some agencies had recommended.

迪頓主張構建廣泛的消費模式數據集，據此理解貧困的決定因素，他認爲這很有必要。與以往的假設相反，他展示了提高人們的收入會帶來更好的食物攝入。這意味着，沒有什麼實證理由支持某些機構的建議，即援助計劃應當專注於提供食物，而非促進經濟增長。