257
Famines such as the Congo famine of
2008 were caused by economic failure,
according to Amartya Sen. He claimed
that famine has never been known
to occur in a functioning democracy.
See also: Markets and morality 22–23 ■ Demographics and economics 68–69 ■ Supply and demand 108–13 ■
The poverty problem 140–41 ■ Development economics 188–93
POST-WAR ECONOMICS
access to as their “entitlements.”
Famines are an example of an
entitlement failure, and entitlements
depend on more than just the
amount of food produced. In a
modern, exchange-based economy
most people do not produce their
own food; they exchange a
commodity (their labor) in return for
another commodity (money), which
is then exchanged again for food.
Whether a family has enough food
to live on depends on what it can
sell or exchange in comparison to
the price of food. A famine occurs
when families’ entitlements (the
goods they have access to, not
the amount generally available) fall
below the minimum amount needed
to survive. This may happen if the
price of food rises or wages fall.
Sen analyzed the Bengal famine
of 1943 and more recent famines in
Africa and Asia to collect empirical
evidence to support his theory. In
Bengal he discovered that the total
food production, although lower
than the year before the famine
began, was still higher than in
previous, famine-free years. He
concluded that the principal cause
of the famine was the inability of
farm laborers’ wages to keep pace
with the inflation-fueled rising
price of food in Calcutta (now
Kolkata). India, then under Britishrule, was going through a boom
as the British government pumped
in money as part of its war effort.
This resulted in laborers suffering
a reduction in their ability to buy
food, and so they starved.
Sen argued that democratic
countries in particular should be
able to prevent the worst famines.
His groundbreaking approach led
to an overturning of beliefs and
approaches to famine. ■Amartya Sen Amartya Sen was born in
Santiniketan, West Bengal, India,
in 1933. His father was a professor
of chemistry, but Sen chose
economics, graduating from the
University of Calcutta (now Kolkata)
in 1953. In the same year he
attained a second degree from
Cambridge University, UK. At 23,
Sen became the youngest ever
Head of Economics at Jadavpur
University, Calcutta. A prize
fellowship enabled him to diversify
his studies into philosophy. Sen
has taught at universities in
Kolkata and Delhi in India; MIT,
Stanford, Berkeley, and Cornellin the US; and Oxford and
Cambridge in the UK. In 1988,
he received the Nobel Prize for
economics. He moved to Harvard
University in 2004, where he is
professor of economics and
philosophy. Sen has married
twice and has four children.Key works1970 Collective Choice and
Social Welfare
1981 Poverty and Famines:
An Essay on Entitlement
and Deprivation
1999 Development as Freedom