- Angus Deaton won the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics in 2015.
- The economist has studied consumer choice, welfare, inequality, and poverty for decades.
- Now, he's revisiting some of his previously held views on unions, free trade, and immigration.
Angus Deaton is doing some rethinking.
Specifically, the 78-year-old Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist is re-examining his views on major topics like unions, immigration, and global trade.
It's a big statement from someone who's spent over 50 years studying inequality, welfare, poverty, and "deaths of despair," and it comes as he sees economics in disarray. His most recent book, "Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality," came out in 2023 — it catalogs, among other topics, the role of economists in the US and tackles some of the problems he's identified.
When I asked Deaton what prompted his rethinking, which he detailed in a recent article for the International Monetary Fund, he said there wasn't just one moment that led to his evolving views — it's been a process, and one that he's not alone in. He thinks there's a broader reevaluation going on.
