Amartya Sen

Economist, Professor, Philosopher and Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen has made groundbreaking contributions to welfare economics, inequality, poverty and social choice theory to name just a few. He has championed feminst issues throughout his works - from bringing to light the issue of “missing” women to serving as an editorial board member of the journal “Feminist Economics”.

Most notably, Sen theorised the “Capability Approach''. Often considered his most revolutionary piece of work, it is an adaptable concept, allowing practitioners to measure well being by taking into account both personal preferences and characteristics. Sen recognised the need to find a measurement of wellbeing beyond resources and utility but by taking into consideration an individual's different capabilities and choices.

The capability approach allows for analysis in both the market and non-market place, implying that factors affecting wellbeing, such as care work, domestic labour and domestic violence should also be taken into account. The approach revolutionized welfare economics as it viewed women as individuals with unique needs, not simply as a part of the black box that is the household. By stressing human diversity like race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, functionality and age, the approach acknowledges that all individuals have different utility functions.

Reading List:

Sen Amartya (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Knopf.

Sen Amartya (1985). Commodities and Capabilities. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Vegard Iversen (2003). ’Intra-household Inequality: A challenge for the capability approach?’. Feminist Economics, 2(3):93-115

Sen, Amartya (1992). "Missing women: social inequality outweighs women's survival advantage in Asia and North Africa"

Nussbaum C Martha. 2003. ’Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and Social Justice.’ Feminist Economics, 2(3):33-59.