Penguin Random House to publish late British economist Tony Atkinson's final book

The final book by British economist Anthony B Atkinson, popularly known as Tony Atkinson, which he was unable to finish due to his death from cancer in 2017, is now being published Penguin Random House.

Titled "Measuring Poverty around the World", the book, as requested by the author, has been edited for publication by two of his colleagues John Micklewright and Andrea Brandolini.

"One of the world's great social scientists and a pioneer in the study of poverty and inequality, he offered an inspiring analysis of a central question: What is poverty and how much of it is there around the globe?" publishers said in a statement.

 

The book talks about the need for "better measurement of poverty" for raising awareness, motivating action, designing good policy, gauging progress, and holding political leaders accountable for meeting targets.

"To help make this possible, Atkinson provides a critically important examination of how poverty is -- and should be -- measured," publishers said.

He starts from first principles about the meaning of poverty, translates these into concrete measures, and analyses the data to which the measures can be applied.

Crucially, he integrates international organizations' measurements of poverty with countries' own national analyses.

Franois Bourguignon, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, and British economist and academic Nicholas Stern have written the after words that address key issues from the unfinished chapters: how poverty relates to growth, inequality, and climate change.

Atkinson was an academic economist particularly concerned with issues of social justice and the design of public policy.

He had been writing on economics since the 1960s, when his first book was on poverty in Britain and his second on the unequal distribution of wealth.

Together with American economist and public policy analyst Joe Stiglitz, he wrote Lectures in Public Economics.

Atkinson's late work focused on top incomes, contributing to the World Wealth and Income Database, and on monitoring rising inequality across the world.