The great escape - Angus Deaton

A Nobel Prize-winning economist tells the remarkable story of how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal over the past two and half centuries

The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton-one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty-tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind.

Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts-including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions-that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape.

Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, The Great Escape is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations.

Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. His many books include The Analysis of Household Surveys and Economics and Consumer Behavior. He is a past president of the American Economic Association.

"Tops my list of must-read books for 2013. Deaton tackles big topics--global improvements to health and well-being, worrisome levels of inequality within nations and between them, and the challenges to curing poverty through foreign aid. His powerful, provocative argument combines careful analysis, humane insight, lucid prose, and a fearless willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. Whether you agree or disagree with its conclusions, this book will force you to rethink your positions about some of the world's most urgent problems."---Christopher L. Eisgruber, president of Princeton University, Bloomberg Businessweek

"The Great Escape is a thoughtful work, extensively illustrated with data, from a distinguished economist who tackles a central controversy of our time in a style refreshingly free of ideological baggage."---John Kay, Prospect

"Shortlisted for the 2014 Spear's Book Awards in Financial History"

"Winner of the 2013 William G. Bowen Award, Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University"

"Deaton's The Great Escape is an uplifting and refreshing read for all who are tired of the many books on economic gloom and environmental doom."---Rolf A.E. Mueller, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture

"In The Great Escape Angus Deaton has provided an insightful, thought-provoking and highly readable overview of the progress of human well being. There is much that both general and specialist audiences will learn from it - I recommend it highly."---Jeff B. Orland, Economic Record

"One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2015, chosen by John Snow"

"This book is a timely reminder that the conditions that facilitated this progress were created not only through the progress of health science, but through a political effort to ensure that science benefited all."---Sara Davies, International Affairs

"Deaton takes the reader on a richly detailed tour through a landscape of historical narrative, science, data from across the world, and scholarly debate. And he is a superb guide: erudite, lucid, humane, and witty. . . . Deaton's book ends up making a powerful contribution to economists' evolving understanding of the importance of institutions."---David N. Weil, Journal of Economic Literature

"In The Great Escape, he dons the hat of an economic historian to provide a fresh perspective on the march of human progress (and its pitfalls) that should inform our current debate about income inequality."---Konrad Yakabuski, Globe & Mail

"Highly accessible."---Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph

"Featured in The Sunday Times 2013 Holiday Roundup"

"This is a fascinating book on health, wealth and inequality."---Bibek Debroy, Businessworld

"[A] fantastic book about the origins of global poverty. Deaton's humanitarian credentials are unimpeachable, yet he thinks almost all non-health related foreign aid is making global poverty worse. He proposes a variety of alternatives, like massive investments in medical research and cracking down on the small arms trade, that might actually help."---Zack Beauchamp, Think Progress

"In The Great Escape Angus Deaton has provided an insightful, thought-provoking and highly readable overview of the progress of human wellbeing. There is much that both general and specialist audiences will learn from it--I recommend it highly."---Jeff Borland, Economic Record

"[A] genuine contribution to the emerging literature on rethinking development."---Andrew Hilton, Financial World

"Deaton's book ends up making a powerful contribution to economists' evolving understanding of the importance of institutions."---David N. Weil, Journal of Economic Literature