View source for Amartya Sen

{{Short description|Indian economist and Nobel laureate (born 1933)}}
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{{Use Indian English|date=June 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}}
{{Infobox academic
| name               = Amartya Sen
| image              = Amartya Sen 2012.jpg
| caption            = Sen in 2012
| birth_name         = Amartya Kumar Sen
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1933|11|3|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Santiniketan]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date         =
| death_place        =
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Nabaneeta Dev Sen|Nabaneeta Dev]]|1958|1976|end=div}}
* {{marriage|[[Eva Colorni]]|1978|1985|end=died}}
* {{marriage|[[Emma Rothschild]]|1991}}
}}
| children           = 4, including [[Nandana Sen|Nandana]] and [[Antara Dev Sen|Antara]]
| awards             = {{ubl | [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] (1998) | [[Bharat Ratna]] (1999) | [[National Humanities Medal]] (2011) | [[Johan Skytte Prize]] (2017)}}
| education          = {{ubl |[[Presidency College, Calcutta]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]]) |[[Trinity College, Cambridge]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]], PhD)}}
| school_tradition   = [[Capability approach]]
| doctoral_advisor   = [[Joan Robinson]]
| influences         = {{flatlist|
* [[Gautama Buddha]]
* [[Adam Smith]]
* [[John Rawls]]
* [[John Maynard Keynes]]
* [[B.&nbsp;R. Ambedkar]]
* [[Kenneth Arrow]]
* [[Piero Sraffa]]
* [[Maurice Dobb]]
* [[Mary Wollstonecraft]]<ref name="Sen 2010">{{cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=The Idea of Justice |publisher=Penguin |location=London |year=2010 |isbn=9780141037851}}</ref>
* [[Karl Marx]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Deneulin |first=Séverine |author-link=Séverine Deneulin |title=Book Reviews: Intellectual Roots of Amartya Sen: Aristotle, Adam Smith and Karl Marx |journal=Journal of Human Development and Capabilities |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=305–306 |doi=10.1080/19452820902941628 |year=2009 |s2cid=216114489}}</ref>
}}
| discipline         = {{hlist | Economics | philosophy}}
| sub_discipline     = {{hlist | [[Welfare economics]] | [[development economics]]}}
| workplaces         = {{ubl | [[Jadavpur University]] | [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] | [[Delhi University]] | [[London School of Economics]] | [[Nuffield College, Oxford]] | [[All Souls College, Oxford]] | [[Harvard University]]}}
| doctoral_students  = {{flatlist|
* [[Ravi Kanbur]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/34233234/amartya-sen-a-personal-appreciation-ravi-kanbur |title=Amartya Sen: A Personal Appreciation |last=Kanbur |first=Ravi |author-link=Ravi Kanbur |date=July 2009 |website=Yumpu}}</ref>
* [[Felicia Knaul]]
* [[Prasanta Pattanaik]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bandyopadhyay |first1=Taradas |last2=Xu |first2=Yongsheng |editor1-last=Fleurbaey |editor1-first=Marc |editor2-last=Salles |editor2-first=Maurice |chapter=Prasanta K. Pattanaik |title=Conversations on Social Choice and Welfare Theory |chapter-url=https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/stcchp/978-3-030-62769-0_13.html |volume=1 |publisher=Springer |year=2021 |pages=243–258 }}</ref>
* [[Ingrid Robeyns]]}}
| notable_works      = {{ubl | ''[[Development as Freedom]]'' (1999) | ''[[The Idea of Justice]]'' (2009)}}
| notable_ideas      = {{hlist | [[Capability approach]] | [[human development theory]] | entitlement approach to [[famine]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nayak |first=Purusottam |title=Understanding the Entitlement Approach to Famine |date=2000 |journal=Journal of Assam University |volume=5 |pages=60–65}}</ref>}}
| influenced         = {{flatlist|
* [[Sabina Alkire]]
* [[Jean-Louis Arcand]]
* [[Tim Besley]]
* [[Jean Drèze]]
* [[Robin Hahnel]]
* [[Inge Kaul]]
* [[M.&nbsp;A. Oommen]]
* [[Thomas Piketty]]
* [[Max Roser]]
* [[Lars Pålsson Syll]]}}
|module      = {{Listen
|pos         = center
|embed       = yes
|filename    = Amartya Sen BBC Radio4 Start the Week 7 Jan 2013 b0367dzs.flac
|title       = Amartya Sen's voice
|type        = speech
|description = Sen speaking on the BBC programme ''[[Start the Week]]'' in 2013}}
}}
'''Amartya Kumar Sen''' ({{IPA|bn|ˈɔmortːo ˈʃen|lang}}; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences]] for his contributions to [[welfare economics]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1998/summary/ |access-date=20 May 2024 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> He has also made major scholarly contributions to [[social choice theory]], [[Economic justice|economic]] and [[social justice]], economic theories of [[famine]]s, [[decision theory]], [[development economics]], [[public health]], and the measures of [[well-being]] of countries.

Sen is currently the [[Harvard University Professor|Thomas W. Lamont University Professor]], and Professor of Economics and philosophy, at [[Harvard University]].<ref name="Sen Harvard DP">{{cite web|url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/biocv|title=University Professorships |publisher=[[Harvard University]]|access-date=31 October 2019}}</ref> He previously served as Master of [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]] at the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref name="Trinity Cambridge">{{cite web|title=The Master of Trinity|url=https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/about/master-fellows/master/|publisher=[[University of Cambridge]]|access-date=27 December 2020|archive-date=27 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227055042/https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/about/master-fellows/master/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1999, he received India's highest civilian honour, [[Bharat Ratna]], for his contribution to welfare economics. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association awarded him the 2020 [[Peace Prize of the German Book Trade]] for his pioneering scholarship addressing issues of [[global justice]] and combating [[social inequality]] in education and healthcare.

==Early life and education==
[[File:Pratichi - The house of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in Shantiniketan, Bolpur.jpg|thumb|'Pratichi', Sen's house in [[Shantiniketan]]]]
Amartya Sen was born on 3 November 1933 in a [[Bengalis|Bengali]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lanoszka |first1=Anna |title=International Development: Socio-Economic Theories, Legacies, and Strategies |year= 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317208655 |page=77 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFFHDwAAQBAJ&dq=amartya+sen+%22bengali+family%22&pg=PT77}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1998/sen/facts/ |access-date=20 May 2024 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=12 July 2018 |title=Govt needs to improve public schools: Amartya Sen at Shantiniketan |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/govt-needs-to-improve-public-schools-amartya-sen-at-shantiniketan-1283326-2018-07-11 |access-date=10 June 2024 |website=India Today |language=en |quote=The noted economist was born in a Bengali Baidya family in Shantiniketan, West Bengal.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Loiwal |first1=Manogya |date=12 July 2018|title=Govt needs to improve public schools: Amartya Sen at Shantiniketan|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/govt-needs-to-improve-public-schools-amartya-sen-at-shantiniketan-1283326-2018-07-12 |work=India Today |access-date=16 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=11 December 2019 |title=3 Bengalis won the Nobel. Abhijit Banerjee first to wear dhoti |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/trending-news/story/abhijit-banerjee-takes-dhuti-panjabi-to-nobel-prize-ceremony-with-esther-duflo-in-saree-viral-video-1627270-2019-12-11 |access-date=20 May 2024 |website=India Today |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=21 July 2012 |title=Invest in education: Amartya Sen |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/invest-in-education-amartya-sen/articleshow/15067755.cms |access-date=20 May 2024 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> family in [[Santiniketan]], Bengal, British India. The first Asian to win a Nobel Prize,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/summary/ |access-date=20 May 2024 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> the polymath and writer [[Rabindranath Tagore]], gave Amartya Sen his name ({{langx|bn|অমর্ত্য|ômorto}}, {{lit|immortal or heavenly}}).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jain |first=Sanya |date=1 July 2020 |title=The Nobel Laureate Who Gave Amartya Sen His Name |url=https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/the-nobel-laureate-who-gave-amartya-sen-his-name-2255245 |work=NDTV |access-date=10 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=One on One – Amartya Sen| date=21 August 2010 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN5esbvAt-w|language=en|access-date=11 June 2020}}</ref> Sen's family was from Wari and [[Manikganj District|Manikganj]], [[Dhaka]], both in present-day [[Bangladesh]]. His father, Ashutosh Sen, was a Professor of Chemistry at [[Dhaka University]], then the Development Commissioner in Delhi and then Chairman of the West Bengal Public Service Commission. Sen moved with his family to [[West Bengal]] in 1945. Sen's mother, Amita Sen, was the daughter of [[Kshitimohan Sen|Kshiti Mohan Sen]], the eminent Sanskritist and scholar of ancient and medieval India. Sen's maternal grandfather was a close associate of Tagore. K.M. Sen served as the second Vice-Chancellor of [[Visva-Bharati University|Visva Bharati University]] from 1953 to 1954.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Former Vice-Chancellors of Visva Bharati University |url=https://visvabharati.ac.in/FormerViceChancellors.html |access-date=20 May 2024 |website=visvabharati.ac.in}}</ref>

Sen began his school education at [[St Gregory's School (Dhaka)|St Gregory's School]] in [[Dhaka]] in 1940. In the fall of 1941, he was admitted to [[Patha Bhavana]], Santiniketan, where he completed his school education. The school had many progressive features, such as distaste for examinations or competitive testing. In addition, the school stressed cultural diversity, and embraced cultural influences from the rest of the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-bio.html|title=Amartya Sen – Biographical |publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=25 April 2016}}</ref> In 1951, he went to [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Presidency College, Calcutta]], where he earned a BA in economics with First in the First Class, with a minor in Mathematics, as a graduating student of the [[University of Calcutta]]. While at Presidency, Sen was diagnosed with oral cancer, and given a 15 per cent chance of living five years.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Riz Khan interviewing Amartya Sen |date=21 August 2010 |title=One on One Amartya Sen |medium=Television production |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN5esbvAt-w |access-date=26 April 2016 |time=18:40 minutes in |publisher=Al Jazeera }}</ref> With radiation treatment, he survived, and in 1953 he moved to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where he earned a second BA in economics in 1955 with a first class, topping the list as well. At this time, he was elected President of the [[Cambridge Majlis]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=fionaholland |date=11 October 2021 |title=At home with Professor Amartya Sen |url=https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/news/at-home-with-professor-amartya-sen/ |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=Trinity College Cambridge |language=en-GB}}</ref> While Sen was officially a PhD student at Cambridge (though he had finished his research in 1955–56), he was offered the position of First-Professor and First-Head of the Economics Department of the newly created [[Jadavpur University]] in [[Calcutta]]. Appointed to the position at age 22, he is still the youngest chairman to have headed the Department of Economics. He served in that position, starting the new Economics Department, from 1956 to 1958.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Home in the World |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2021 |isbn=9780141970981 |pages=328–335}}</ref>

Meanwhile, Sen was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College, which gave him four years to study any subject; he made the decision to study philosophy. Sen explained: "The broadening of my studies into philosophy was important for me not just because some of my main areas of interest in economics relate quite closely to philosophical disciplines (for example, [[social choice theory]] makes intense use of [[mathematical logic]] and also draws on [[moral philosophy]], and so does the study of inequality and deprivation), but also because I found philosophical studies very rewarding on their own."<ref name=Philosophy>{{cite web|title=Amartya Sen – Biographical: Philosophy and economics |url= https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-bio.html |website= The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 |publisher= Nobel Prize |access-date= 16 June 2014 }}</ref> His interest in philosophy, however, dates back to his college days at Presidency, where he read books on philosophy and debated philosophical themes. One of the books he was most interested in was [[Kenneth Arrow]]'s ''[[Social Choice and Individual Values]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-bio.html|title=Amartya Sen – Biographical|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=20 November 2017}}</ref>

In Cambridge, there were major debates between supporters of [[Keynesian economics]], and the neo-classical economists who were sceptical of Keynes. Because of a lack of enthusiasm for social choice theory in both Trinity and Cambridge, Sen chose a different subject for his PhD thesis, which was on "[[Choice of techniques|The Choice of Techniques]]" in 1959. The work had been completed earlier, except for advice from his adjunct supervisor in India, [[A.&nbsp;K. Dasgupta]], given to Sen while teaching and revising his work at Jadavpur, under the supervision of the "brilliant but vigorously intolerant" [[post-Keynesian]] [[Joan Robinson]].<ref name=Robinson>{{cite web|title= Amartya Sen – Biographical: Cambridge as a battleground |url= https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-bio.html |website= The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 |publisher= Nobel Prize |access-date= 16 June 2014 }}</ref> [[Quentin Skinner]] notes that Sen was a member of the secret society [[Cambridge Apostles]] during his time at Cambridge.<ref>{{cite AV media | people = Professor Quentin Skinner and Alan Macfarlane | title = Interview of Professor Quentin Skinner &nbsp;– part 2 | medium = Video | via = YouTube | location = Cambridge | date = 2 June 2008 | minutes = 57:55 | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVdAhzqFLps }}</ref>

During 1960–61, Amartya Sen visited the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], on leave from Trinity College.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Home in the World |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2021 |isbn=9780141970981 |pages=358–364}}</ref>

==Research work==
[[File:The Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen delivering the Inaugural Prof. Hiren Mukerjee Memorial Parliamentary Lecture on the theme “Demands of Social Justice”, at Parliament House, in New Delhi on August 11, 2008.jpg|thumb|right|Sen giving the inaugural parliamentary lecture at [[Old Parliament House, New Delhi|Parliament House]] in New Delhi]]

=== Social choice theory ===
Sen's work on 'Choice of Techniques' complemented that of [[Maurice Dobb]]. In a developing country, the Dobb-Sen strategy relied on maximising investible surpluses, maintaining constant real wages and using the entire increase in labour productivity, due to technological change, to raise the rate of accumulation. In other words, workers were expected to demand no improvement in their standard of living despite having become more productive.
Sen's papers in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped develop the theory of [[social choice]], which first came to prominence in the work by the American economist [[Kenneth Arrow]]. Arrow had most famously shown that when voters have three or more distinct alternatives (options), any [[Ranked voting system|ranked order]] [[voting system]] will in at least some situations inevitably conflict with what many assume to be basic democratic norms. Sen's contribution to the literature was to show under what conditions [[Arrow's impossibility theorem]]<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Benicourt | first = Emmanuelle | title = Is Amartya Sen a post-autistic economist? | journal = Post-Autistic Economics Review | issue = 15 | article-number = 4 | date = 1 September 2002 | url = http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue15/Benicourt15.htm | access-date= 16 June 2014}}</ref> applied, as well as to extend and enrich the theory of social choice, informed by his interests in [[history of economic thought]] and philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Collective choice and social welfare |date=1970 |publisher=Oliver & Boyd |isbn=978-0-8162-7765-0 |series=Mathematical economics texts |location=Edinburgh}}</ref>

=== Liberal Paradox ===
In 1970, Sen published his paper "The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal," which introduced the "[[liberal paradox]]", also sometimes . This paradox shows that no means of aggregating individual preferences into a single, social choice, can simultaneously fulfill the following, seemingly mild conditions: unrestricted domain, the weak Pareto principle, and a minimal requirement of individual rights. Pareto efficiency dictates that if every individual in a society prefers option A to option B, the society as a whole should also prefer A. Minimal liberalism suggests that individuals should have the decisive right to make choices in purely personal matters, such as what to read or how to dress.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sen |first=Amartya |date=1970 |title=The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1829633 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=152–157 |doi=10.1086/259614 |jstor=1829633 |bibcode=1970JPoEc..78..152S |issn=0022-3808}}</ref>

Sen illustrated the result using a hypothetical example involving two individuals ("Lewd" and "Prude") and three social states: one person reading a particular book, the other reading, or neither reading. Prude thinks that the book is indecent and that it should be disposed of, unread. However, if someone must read it, Prude would prefer to read it rather than Lewd since Prude thinks it would be even worse for someone to read and enjoy the book rather than read it in disgust. Given these preferences of the two individuals in the society, a social planner must decide what to do. Should the planner force Lewd to read the book, force Prude to read the book or let it go unread? Under this decisiveness assignment, society would generate cyclic collective preferences, violating acyclicity (or transitivity) of social ordering.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=List |first=Christian |date=18 December 2013 |title=Social Choice Theory |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/social-choice/ |journal=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |volume=Winter 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Rationality and freedom |date=2004 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-674-01351-3 |edition=1. paperback |location=Cambridge, Mass.}}</ref>

This paradox, now known as the "liberal paradox," demonstrates a conflict between individual rights and social efficiency: ensuring minimal individual liberty may force the violation of Pareto-style aggregation consistency.

=== ''Poverty and Famines'' (1981) ===
In 1981, Sen published ''Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation'' (1981), a book in which he argued that famine occurs not only from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food. Sen also argued that the Bengal famine was caused by an urban economic boom that raised [[food prices]], thereby causing millions of rural workers to starve to death when their wages did not keep up.<ref name=Time>{{cite magazine | last= Sachs | first= Jeffrey | author-link= Jeffrey Sachs | title= The real causes of famine: a Nobel laureate blames authoritarian rulers | url= http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989405,00.html | access-date= 16 June 2014 | magazine= Time | date= 26 October 1998 | archive-date= 15 July 2014 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140715015828/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989405,00.html | url-status= dead }}</ref> In 1999 he wrote, "no famine has ever taken place ... in a functioning democracy".<ref>Sen (1999, p. 16).  Similarly, on p. 176, he wrote, "there has never been a famine in a functioning multiparty democracy."</ref>

In addition to his important work on the causes of famines, Sen's work in the field of development economics has had considerable influence in the formulation of the "[[Human Development Report]]",<ref name=UNDP>{{cite book | contribution = Overview &#124; Celebrating 20 years of human development | editor-last = United Nations Development Programme | editor-first = UNDP | editor-link = United Nations Development Programme | title = Human Development Report 2010 &#124; 20th anniversary edition &#124; the real wealth of nations: pathways to human development | page = 2 | publisher = United Nations Development Programme | location = New York| year = 2010 | isbn = 9780230284456 | quote = ...the first HDR called for a different approach to economics and development – one that put people at the centre. The approach was anchored in a new vision of development, inspired by the creative passion and vision of Mahbub ul Haq, the lead author of the early HDRs, and the ground-breaking work of Amartya Sen.}} [http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/270/hdr_2010_en_complete_reprint.pdf Pdf version.]</ref> published by the [[United Nations Development Programme]].<ref>{{Citation
 | last1 = Batterbury | first1 = Simon
 | last2 = Fernando | first2 = Jude
 | contribution = Amartya Sen
 | editor1-last = Hubbard | editor1-first = Phil
 | editor2-last = Kitchin | editor2-first = Rob
 | editor3-last = Valentine | editor3-first = Gill
 | title = Key thinkers on space and place
 | pages = 251–257
 | publisher = Sage
 | location = London
 | year = 2004
 | isbn = 9780761949626
 | postscript = .
}} [http://www.simonbatterbury.net/pubs/Senlongversion.htm Draft]</ref> This annual publication that ranks countries on a variety of economic and social indicators owes much to the contributions by Sen among other social choice theorists in the area of economic measurement of poverty and inequality.<ref name="UNDP" />

=== "Equality of What?" (1979) ===
Sen's revolutionary contribution to development economics and social indicators is the concept of "[[Capability approach|capability]]" developed in his article "Equality of What?".<ref name="What">{{Cite web |last=Sen |first=Amartya |date=22 May 1979 |title=Equality of What? |url=https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/s/sen80.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619215632/https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/s/sen80.pdf |archive-date=19 June 2021 |website=Tanner Lectures – The University of Utah}}</ref> He argues that governments should be measured against the concrete capabilities of their citizens. This is because top-down development will always trump human rights as long as the definition of terms remains in doubt (is a "right" something that must be provided or something that simply cannot be taken away?). For instance, in the United States citizens have a right to vote. To Sen, this concept is fairly empty. For citizens to have a capacity to vote, they first must have "functionings". These "functionings" can range from the very broad, such as the availability of education, to the very specific, such as transportation to the [[Polling station|polls]]. Only when such barriers are removed can the citizen truly be said to act out of personal choice. It is up to the individual society to make the list of minimum capabilities guaranteed by that society. For an example of the "capabilities approach" in practice, see [[Martha Nussbaum]]'s ''Women and Human Development''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Nussbaum | first = Martha | author-link = Martha Nussbaum | title = Women and human development: the capabilities approach | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge New York | year = 2000 | isbn = 9780521003858 }}</ref>

=== "More than 100 Million Women Are Missing" (1990) ===
He wrote a controversial article in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' entitled "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing" (see [[Missing women of Asia]]), analysing the mortality impact of unequal rights between the genders in the developing world, particularly Asia.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sen |first=Amartya |date=20 December 1990 |title=More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/12/20/more-than-100-million-women-are-missing/ |access-date=29 May 2024 |work=The New York Review of Books |language=en |volume=37 |issue=20 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> Other studies, including one by [[Emily Oster]], had argued that this is an overestimation, though Oster has since then recanted her conclusions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Oster | first1 = Emily |last2 = Chen | first2 = Gang | author-link1 = Emily Oster |title=Hepatitis B does not explain male-biased sex ratios in China |journal=[[Economics Letters]] |volume=107 |issue=2 |year=2010 |pages=142–144 |doi=10.1016/j.econlet.2010.01.007 | s2cid = 9071877 |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w13971.pdf }}</ref>

=== ''Development as Freedom'' (1999) ===
{{Main|Development as Freedom}}
In 1999, Sen further advanced and redefined the capability approach in his book ''[[Development as Freedom]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |url=https://archive.org/details/developmentasfre00amar |title=Development as Freedom |publisher=Anchor |year=1999 |isbn=9780385720274}}</ref> Sen argued that development should be viewed as an effort to advance the real freedoms that individuals enjoy, rather than simply focusing on metrics such as GDP or income-per-capita.

Sen was inspired by violent acts he had witnessed as a child leading up to the Partition of India in 1947. On one morning, a Muslim daily labourer named Kader Mia stumbled through the rear gate of Sen's family home, bleeding from a knife wound in his back. Because of his extreme poverty, he had come to Sen's primarily Hindu neighbourhood searching for work; his choices were the starvation of his family or the risk of death in coming to the neighbourhood. The price of Kader Mia's economic unfreedom was his death. Kader Mia need not have come to a hostile area in search of income in those troubled times if his family could have managed without it. This experience led Sen to begin thinking about economic unfreedom from a young age.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Development As Freedom |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |year=2011 |isbn=9780307874290 |pages=8}}</ref>

In ''Development as Freedom'', Sen outlined five specific types of freedoms: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. Political freedoms refer to the ability of the people to have a voice in government and to be able to scrutinise the authorities. Economic facilities concern both the resources within the market and the market mechanism itself. Any focus on income and wealth in the country would serve to increase the economic facilities for the people. Social opportunities deal with the establishments that provide benefits like healthcare or education for the populace, allowing individuals to live better lives. Transparency guarantees allow individuals to interact with some degree of trust and knowledge of the interaction. Protective security is the system of social safety nets that prevent a group affected by poverty being subjected to terrible misery. Development encompassing non-economic areas, Sen argues, renders the notion of a dichotomy between "freedom" and "development," as implied by the concept of [[Asian values]], meaningless and disingenuous.

Before Sen's work, these had been viewed as only the ends of development; luxuries afforded to countries that focus on increasing income. However, Sen argued that the increase in real freedoms should be both the ends and the means of development. He elaborates upon this by illustrating the closely interconnected natures of the five main freedoms as he believes that expansion of one of those freedoms can lead to expansion in another one as well. In this regard, he discussed the correlation between social opportunities of education and health and how both of these complement economic and political freedoms as a healthy and well-educated person is better suited to make informed economic decisions and be involved in fruitful political demonstrations, etc. A comparison is also drawn between China and India to illustrate this interdependence of freedoms. Sen noted that both countries had been working towards developing their economies—China since 1979 and India since 1991.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |title=Development As Freedom |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |year=2011 |isbn=9780307874290 |pages=41–43}}</ref>

=== ''The Idea of Justice'' (2009) ===
{{Main|The Idea of Justice}}

In 2009, Sen published a book called ''[[The Idea of Justice]]''.<ref name="Sen 2010" /> Based on his previous work in welfare economics and social choice theory, but also on his philosophical thoughts, Sen presented his own theory of justice that he meant to be an alternative to the influential modern theories of justice of [[John Rawls]] or [[John Harsanyi]]. In opposition to Rawls but also earlier justice theoreticians [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] or [[David Hume]], and inspired by the philosophical works of [[Adam Smith]] and [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], Sen developed a theory that is both comparative and realisations-oriented (instead of being transcendental and institutional). However, he still regards institutions and processes as being equally important. As an alternative to Rawls's [[veil of ignorance]], Sen chose the [[thought experiment]] of an impartial spectator as the basis of his theory of justice. He also stressed the importance of public discussion (understanding democracy in the sense of [[John Stuart Mill]]) and a focus on people's capabilities (an [[capability approach|approach]] that he had co-developed), including the notion of universal human rights, in evaluating various states with regard to justice.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

==Career==
Sen began his career both as a teacher and a research scholar in the Department of Economics, [[Jadavpur University]] as a professor of economics in 1956. He spent two years in that position.<ref name=":0" /> From 1957 to 1963, Sen served as a [[Fellow (Oxbridge)|fellow]] of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. Between 1960 and 1961, Sen was a visiting professor at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in the United States, where he got to know [[Paul Samuelson]], [[Robert Solow]], [[Franco Modigliani]], and [[Norbert Wiener]].<ref name=Calcutta>{{cite web|title=Amartya Sen &#124; Biographical: opening paragraph |url= https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-bio.html |website=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 |publisher=Nobel Prize |access-date=12 June 2012 }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> He was also a visiting professor at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] (1964–1965) and [[Cornell University]] (1978–1984). He taught as Professor of Economics between 1963 and 1971 at the [[Delhi School of Economics]] (where he completed his ''magnum opus'', ''Collective Choice and Social Welfare'', in 1969).<ref name=Delhi>{{cite web|title=Amartya Sen &#124; Biographical: Delhi School of Economics |url= https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-bio.html |website=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 |publisher=Nobel Prize |access-date=12 June 2012 }}</ref>

[[File:The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh with Prof. Amartya Sen at a meeting with the members of Nalanda Mentor Group, in New Delhi on August 13, 2008.jpg|thumb|right|Sen with [[List of Prime Ministers of India|13th Prime Minister of India]] [[Manmohan Singh]]]]
During this time Sen was also a frequent visitor to various other premiere Indian economic schools and centres of excellence, such as [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]], the [[Indian Statistical Institute]], the [[Centre for Development Studies]], [[Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics]], and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences. He was a companion of distinguished economists like [[Manmohan Singh]] (ex-Prime Minister of India and a veteran economist responsible for liberalising the Indian economy), [[K. N. Raj]] (advisor to various prime ministers and a veteran economist who was the founder of the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, which is one of India's premier think tanks and schools), and [[Jagdish Bhagwati]] (who is known to be one of the greatest Indian economists in the field of international trade and currently teaches at [[Columbia University]]). This is a period considered to be a Golden Period in the history of the DSE. In 1971, he joined the [[London School of Economics]] as a professor of economics, and taught there until 1977. From 1977 to 1988, he taught at the [[University of Oxford]], where he was first a professor of economics and fellow of [[Nuffield College, Oxford|Nuffield College]], and then from 1980 the [[Drummond Professor of Political Economy]] and a fellow of [[All Souls College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite journal |author= Blake, David |title= Monetarism attacked by top economists |journal= The Times |date= 30 March 1981 |page= 1 |issue= 60,889 |url= https://archive.org/details/NewsUK1981UKEnglish/Mar%2030%201981%2C%20The%20Times%2C%20%2360889%2C%20UK%20%28en%29/ |via= [[Internet Archive]] |accessdate= 24 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/121217 |title= Economy: Letter of the 364 economists critical of monetarism (letter sent to academics and list of signatories) [released 2012] |accessdate=24 March 2025|publisher= [[Margaret Thatcher Foundation]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Were all 364 Economists Wrong? |editor= Booth, Philip |editor-link= Philip Booth (economist) |publisher= [[Institute of Economic Affairs]]|place = London |page= [https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/upldbook310pdf.pdf 130] |year= 2006 |url= https://iea.org.uk/publications/research/were-364-economists-all-wrong |accessdate = 24 March 2025}}</ref>

In 1985, Sen co-founded the Eva Colorni Trust at the former [[London Guildhall University]] in memory of his deceased wife.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home {{!}} Eva Colorni Memorial Trust |url=https://www.evacolornitrust.com/ |access-date=29 May 2024 |website=Eva Colorni Memorial |language=en}}</ref> In 1987, Sen joined [[Harvard University|Harvard]] as the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor of Economics. In 1998 he was appointed as [[Master of Trinity College, Cambridge]],<ref name=Master_Camb>{{cite web|title=Prof. Amartya Sen |url=http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=176&conid=1 |website=Trinity College, University of Cambridge |access-date=16 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131013000026/http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=176&conid=1 |archive-date= 13 October 2013 }}</ref> becoming the first Asian head of an [[Oxbridge]] college.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/amartya-sen-the-taste-of-true-freedom-8688089.html |website=The Independent  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713003307/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/amartya-sen-the-taste-of-true-freedom-8688089.html |archive-date=13 July 2013 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |title=Amartya Sen: The taste of true freedom |first=Boyd |last=Tonkin |date=5 July 2013 |access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref> In January 2004, Sen returned to Harvard.

[[File:The Chancellor of Nalanda University, Prof. Amartya Sen meeting the President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on October 09, 2012.jpg|thumb|right|Sen with 13th [[President of India]] [[Pranab Mukherjee]] at [[Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi|Rashtrapati Bhavan]] in 2012]]
In May 2007, he was appointed chairman of Nalanda Mentor Group to plan the establishment of [[Nalanda University]].<ref name="Sen_Nalanda">{{cite news |last1=Ministry of External Affairs |date=11 August 2010 |title=Press Release: Nalanda University Bill |url=http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=64617 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118214523/http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=64617 |archive-date=18 January 2012 |access-date=4 January 2012 |publisher=Press Information Bureau, Government of India |quote=The University of Nalanda is proposed to be established under the aegis of the East Asia Summit (EAS), as a regional initiative. Government of India constituted a Nalanda Mentor Group (NMG) in 2007, under the Chairmanship of Prof. Amartya Sen...}}</ref> The university was intended to be a revival of [[Nalanda mahavihara]], an ancient educational centre.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 October 2009 |title=Joint Press Statement of the 4th East Asia Summit on the Revival of Nalanda University Cha-am Hua Hin, Thailand |url=https://asean.org/joint-press-statement-of-the-4th-east-asia-summit-on-the-revival-of-nalanda-university-cha-am-hua-hin-thailand-25-october-2009/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505222432/http://asean.org/?static_post=joint-press-statement-of-the-4th-east-asia-summit-on-the-revival-of-nalanda-university-cha-am-hua-hin-thailand-25-october-2009 |archive-date=5 May 2018 |access-date=28 May 2024 |website=Association of Southeast Asian Nations}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=Nida Najar |title=Indians Plan Rebirth for 5th-Century University |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/world/asia/indians-plan-rebirth-for-5th-century-university.html |access-date=1 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=23 March 2014}}</ref>

He chaired the Social Sciences jury for the [[Infosys Prize]] from 2009 to 2011, and the Humanities jury from 2012 to 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Infosys Prize – Jury 2011|url=https://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/jury/jury-2011.asp#Social-Sciences|website=Infosys Science Foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220630050209/https://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/jury/jury-2011.asp |archive-date= 30 June 2022 }}</ref>

On 19 July 2012, Sen was named the first chancellor of the proposed Nalanda University (NU).<ref>{{cite news | first= Faizan | last= Ahmad | title= Amartya Sen named Nalanda University chancellor | url= http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Amartya-Sen-named-Nalanda-University-chancellor/articleshow/15049508.cms | work= The Times of India |access-date= 16 June 2014 | location=India | date=20 July 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151104201945/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Amartya-Sen-named-Nalanda-University-chancellor/articleshow/15049508.cms |archive-date= 4 November 2015 }}</ref> Sen was criticised as the project suffered due to inordinate delays, mismanagement, and lack of presence of faculty on ground.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/nalanda-university-what-went-wrong-115030400031_1.html|title=Nalanda University: What went wrong?|last=Puri|first=Anjali|date=4 March 2015|work=Business Standard India|access-date=6 September 2019}}</ref> Finally teaching began in August 2014. On 20 February 2015, Sen withdrew his candidature for a second term.<ref name=":2" />

==Memberships and associations==
He has served as president of the [[Econometric Society]] (1984), the International Economic Association (1986–1989), the Indian Economic Association (1989) and the [[American Economic Association]] (1994). He has also served as president of the [[Development Studies Association]] and the [[Human Development and Capability Association]]. He serves as the honorary director of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Center for Human and Economic Development Studies at [[Peking University]] in China.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.cheds.pku.edu.cn/Page/En/people.html |title=People: Key committees 1. &#124; Academic Advisory Committee, Honorary Director: Amartya Sen |publisher=Center for Human and Economic Development Studies (CHEDS), Peking University |access-date=19 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910195915/http://www.cheds.pku.edu.cn/Page/En/people.html |archive-date=10 September 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sen has been called "the Conscience of the profession" and "the [[Mother Teresa]] of Economics"<ref name="Sen Profile">{{cite news |first=Jonathan |last=Steele |author-link=Jonathan Steele (journalist) |title=The Guardian Profile: Amartya Sen |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/31/society.politics |work=The Guardian |access-date=7 January 2012 |location=London |date=19 April 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Coy |title=Commentary: The Mother Teresa of economics |url=http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1998-10-25/commentary-the-mother-teresa-of-economics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025111837/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1998-10-25/commentary-the-mother-teresa-of-economics |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 October 2012 |work=Bloomberg BusinessWeek |access-date=16 June 2014 |location=New York |date=25 October 1998}}</ref> for his work on famine, [[human development theory]], [[welfare economics]], the underlying mechanisms of poverty, [[gender inequality]], and [[Contributions to liberal theory|political liberalism]]. However, he denies the comparison to Mother Teresa, saying that he has never tried to follow a lifestyle of dedicated self-sacrifice.<ref>{{cite news |first=Dunlop |last=Bill |title=Book Festival: Amartya Sen, Nobel prize-winning welfare economist |url=http://www.edinburghguide.com/festival/2010/edinburghbookfestival/bookfestivalamartyasennobelprizewinningwelfareeconomist-6477 |publisher=Edinburgh Guide |access-date=16 June 2014 |location=Edinburgh |date=31 August 2010}}</ref> Amartya Sen also added his voice to the campaign against the anti-gay [[Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Randeep |last=Ramesh |title=India's literary elite call for anti-gay law to be scrapped |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/18/gayrights.books |work=The Guardian |access-date=16 June 2014 |location=London |date=18 September 2006}}</ref>

Sen has served as Honorary Chairman of Oxfam, the UK based international development charity, and is now its Honorary Advisor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/sen/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021204720/http://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/sen/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 October 2014|title=Amartya Sen|website=WHO|access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/31/society.politics|title=The Guardian Profile: Amartya Sen|last=Steele|first=Jonathan|date=31 March 2001|work=The Guardian|access-date=29 December 2017|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Sen is also a member of the [[Berggruen Institute]]'s 21st Century Council.<ref>{{cite web|title=Berggruen Institute|url=http://governance.berggruen.org/councils/21st-century-council/members|access-date=7 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106173236/http://governance.berggruen.org/councils/21st-century-council/members|archive-date=6 January 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sen is an Honorary Fellow of [[St Edmund's College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-amartyr-sen-fba|title=St Edmund's College – University of Cambridge|website=st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk|access-date=10 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910204247/http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-amartyr-sen-fba|archive-date=10 September 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by [[Reporters Without Borders]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=9 September 2018|title=Amartya Sen {{!}} Reporters without borders|url=https://rsf.org/en/amartya-sen|access-date=3 March 2021|website=RSF|language=en}}</ref>

==Media and culture==
A 56-minute documentary named ''Amartya Sen: A Life Re-examined'' directed by [[Suman Ghosh]] details his life and work.<ref name="Sen Documentary Ghosh">{{cite magazine | title = Amartya Sen: A Life Reexamined, A Film | url = http://icarusfilms.com/pdf/philo05.pdf | magazine = Icarus Films newsletter | year = 2005 | location = Brooklyn, New York | publisher = First Run/Icarus Films | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121119024103/http://icarusfilms.com/pdf/philo05.pdf | archive-date = 19 November 2012}}</ref><ref name="Documentary Sen">{{cite news | first= Aparajita | last= Gupta |title= Nobel laureate's life on silver screen|url= https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Nobel-laureates-life-on-silver-screen/articleshow/11321402.cms|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130531202305/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-01/kolkata/30578894_1_amartya-sen-kaushik-basu-chief-economic-advisor|url-status= live|archive-date= 31 May 2013| work=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=2 January 2012|date=1 January 2012}}</ref> A documentary about Amartya Sen, titled The Argumentative Indian (the title of one of Sen's own books<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Picador| isbn = 9780312426026| last = Sen| first = Amartya| title = The argumentative Indian: writings on Indian history, culture and identity| location = New York| date = 2006}}</ref>), was released in 2017.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Argumentative Indian|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6523702/|access-date=29 October 2019}}</ref>

A 2001 portrait of Sen by Annabel Cullen is in Trinity College's collection.<ref>{{cite AV media | people = Artist: Annabel Cullen &#124; Subject: Amartya Sen | title = Amartya Sen (b.1933), Master (1998–2004), Economist and Philosopher | medium = Painting | publisher = [[Art UK]] | location = Trinity College, University of Cambridge |year = 2001 | url = https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/amartya-sen-b-1933-master-19982004-economist-and-philosopher-134682 }}</ref> A 2003 portrait of Sen hangs in the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] in London.<ref>{{cite AV media | people = Artist: Antony Williams &#124; Subject: Amartya Sen | title = Amartya Sen | medium = Painting | location = National Portrait Gallery, London |year = 2003 | url = http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw67975/Amartya-Kumar-Sen }}</ref>

In 2011, he was present at the ''Rabindra Utsab'' ceremony at [[Bangabandhu International Conference Centre]] (BICC), [[Bangladesh]]. He unveiled the cover of Sruti Gitobitan, a Rabindrasangeet album comprising all the 2222 [[Tagore songs]], brought out by [[Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya]], principal of Shurer Dhara School of Music.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.priyo.com/music/2011/12/28/surer-dhara-launch-sruti-gitab-44669.html |script-title=bn:প্রিয়.কম |work=Priyo.com |language=bn |access-date=21 March 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225035900/http://news.priyo.com/music/2011/12/28/surer-dhara-launch-sruti-gitab-44669.html |archive-date=25 February 2015}}</ref>

[[Max Roser]] said that it was the work of Sen that made him create [[Our World in Data]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ourworldindata.org/history-of-our-world-in-data|title=History of Our World in Data|website=Our World in Data|access-date=29 October 2019}}</ref>

In 2022, Sen Published his photo book ''Around the World in Fifty Shots: A travel story through Portraits by Amartya Sen.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amartya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6HrzgEACAAJ |title=Around the World in Fifty Shots: A Travel Story Through Portraits by Amartya Sen |date=16 January 2022 |publisher=Independently Published |isbn=979-8-4033-5416-5 |language=en}}</ref>

==Political views==
Sen was critical of [[Narendra Modi]] when he was announced as the prime ministerial candidate for the [[BJP]]. In April 2014, he said that Modi would not make a good prime minister.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ndtv.com/elections-news/narendra-modi-is-not-a-good-pm-candidate-amartya-sen-559552|title=Narendra Modi is not a good PM candidate: Amartya Sen|publisher=NDTV}}</ref> He conceded later in December 2014 that Modi did give people a sense of faith that things can happen.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/the-biggest-issue-with-this-government-is-social-cohesion/|title=Narendra Modi did give people a sense of faith that things can happen|work=The Indian Express}}</ref> In February 2015, Sen opted out of seeking a second term for the chancellor post of [[Nalanda University]], stating that the Government of India was not keen on him continuing in the post.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |last=Nayar |first=Aashmita |date=19 February 2015 |title=Morning Wrap: Amartya Sen Quits Nalanda; Meet India's Wealthiest Monkey |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/02/20/the-morning-wrap_n_6718028.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001220200/https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/morning-wrap-amartya-sen-quits-nalanda-meet-indias-wealthiest_n_6718028 |archive-date=1 October 2022 |access-date=28 May 2024 |work=HuffPost India}}</ref>

In August 2019, during the clampdown and curfew in [[Kashmir]] for more than two weeks after the [[Indian revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status]], Sen criticised the government and said "As an Indian, I am not proud of the fact that India, after having done so much to achieve a democratic norm in the world – where India was the first non-Western country to go for democracy – that we lose that reputation on the grounds of action that have been taken".<ref>[https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/amartya-sen-no-resolution-of-kashmir-without-democracy-2087327 "Not Proud As An Indian...": Amartya Sen's Critique Of Kashmir Move], NDTV, 19 August 2019.</ref><ref>[http://m.thedailynewnation.com/news/226084/kashmir-without-democracy-not-acceptable-amartya Kashmir without democracy not acceptable: Amartya] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920110433/http://m.thedailynewnation.com/news/226084/kashmir-without-democracy-not-acceptable-amartya |date=20 September 2020}}, ''New Nation'', 19 August 2019.</ref> He regarded the detention of Kashmiri political leaders as "a classical colonial excuse" to prevent [[Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir|backlash]] against the Indian government's decision and called for a democratic solution that would involve Kashmiri people.<ref>[https://www.ndtv.com/video/shows/left-right-centre/j-k-detentions-a-classic-colonial-excuse-amartya-sen-524819 J&K Detentions "A Classic Colonial Excuse": Amartya Sen], NDTV, 19 August 2019.</ref>

Sen has spent much of his later life as a political writer and activist. He has been outspoken about Narendra Modi's leadership in India. In an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]'', he claimed that Modi's fearmongering among the Indian people was anti-democratic. "The big thing that we know from John Stuart Mill is that democracy is government by discussion, and, if you make discussion fearful, you are not going to get a democracy, no matter how you count the votes." He disagreed with Modi's ideology of Hindu nationalism, and advocated for a more integrated and diverse ideology that reflects the heterogeneity of India.<ref>Chotiner, Isaac, and Eliza Griswold. [http://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/amartya-sens-hopes-and-fears-for-indian-democracy "Amartya Sen's Hopes and Fears for Indian Democracy."] ''The New Yorker'', 6 October 2019.</ref>

Sen also wrote an article for ''The New York Times'' in 2013 documenting the reasons why India trailed behind China in economic development. He advocated for healthcare reform, because low-income people in India have to deal with exploitative and inadequate private healthcare. He recommended that India implement the same education policies that Japan did in the late 19th century. However, he conceded that there is a tradeoff between democracy and progress in Asia because democracy is a near reality in India and not in China.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/opinion/why-india-trails-china.html "Why India Trails China."] ''New York Times'', 20 June 2013.</ref>

In a 1999 article in ''[[The Atlantic]]'', Sen recommended for India a middle path between the "hard-knocks" development policy that creates wealth at the expense of civil liberties, and radical progressivism that only seeks to protect civil liberties at the expense of development. Rather than create an entirely new theory for ethical development in Asia, Sen sought to reform the current development model.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Kapur |first=Akash |date=December 1999 |title=A Third Way for the Third World |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/12/a-third-way-for-the-third-world/377927/ |magazine=The Atlantic Monthly |pages=124–129}}</ref>

In 2025, Sen raised concerns about the [[Special Intensive Revision|Special Intensive Revision (SIR)]] of electoral rolls in [[Bihar]], warning that it could disenfranchise poor and marginalized people if documentation requirements are too strict.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 August 2025 |title=Amartya Sen raises concerns over SIR that risks 'disenfranchising' poor people |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/amartya-sen-raises-concerns-over-sir-that-risks-disenfranchising-poor-people/articleshow/123459452.cms |access-date=24 November 2025 |work=The Economic Times |issn=0013-0389}}</ref>

==Personal life and beliefs==
[[File:Amartya Sen e Emma Georgina Rothschild, historiadora da economia e Professora em Harvard, no Fronteiras do Pensamento Porto Alegre 2012 (6971622120).jpg|thumb|right|Sen with his wife Emma Rothschild.]]
Sen has been married three times. His first wife was [[Nabaneeta Dev Sen]], an Indian writer and scholar, with whom he had two daughters: [[Antara Dev Sen|Antara]], a journalist and publisher, and [[Nandana Sen|Nandana]], a [[Bollywood]] actress. Their marriage broke up shortly after they moved to London in 1971.<ref name="Sen Profile" /> In 1978 Sen married [[Eva Colorni]], an Italian economist, daughter of [[Eugenio Colorni]] and [[Ursula Hirschmann]] and niece of [[Albert O. Hirschman]]. The couple had two children, a daughter Indrani, who is a journalist in New York, and a son Kabir, a hip hop artist, MC, and music teacher at [[Shady Hill School]]. Eva died of cancer in 1985.<ref name="Sen Profile" /> In 1991, Sen married [[Emma Georgina Rothschild]], who serves as the Jeremy and Jane Knowles Professor of History at Harvard University.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= |title=Emma Rothschild: Jeremy and Jane Knowles Professor of History |url=https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/emma-rothschild |website=Harvard History Department |location= |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=24 October 2025}}</ref>

The Sens have a house in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts, which is the base from which they teach during the academic year. They also have a home in Cambridge, England, where Sen is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Rothschild is a Fellow of [[Magdalene College, Cambridge|Magdalene College]]. He usually spends his winter holidays at his home in [[Shantiniketan]] in West Bengal, India, where he used to go on long bike rides until recently. Asked how he relaxes, he replies: "I read a lot and like arguing with people."<ref name="Sen Profile" />

Sen is an [[atheist]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chanda |first1=Arup| title=Market economy not the panacea, says Sen |url=http://www.rediff.com/business/1998/dec/28sen.htm|access-date=16 June 2014|publisher=Rediff on the Net|date=28 December 1998 |quote=Although this is a personal matter... But the answer to your question is: No. I do not believe in god.}}</ref> In an interview, he noted:<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bardhan |first1=Pranab |title=The arguing Indian |url=http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/july-august-2006-indo-chic/arguing-indian |access-date=16 June 2014|work=California Magazine |publisher=Cal Alumni Association UC Berkeley |date=July–August 2006}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=In some ways people had got used to the idea that India was spiritual and religion-oriented. That gave a leg up to the religious interpretation of India, despite the fact that [[Sanskrit]] had a larger [[atheistic]] literature than exists in any other [[classical language]]. [[Vidyaranya|Madhava Acharya]], the remarkable 14th century philosopher,<ref>Not to be confused with Madhvacharya of Dwaitya vedanta the 13th century saint, this book is by a different philosopher of the 14th century http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34125/34125-h/34125-h.htm</ref> wrote this rather great book called ''Sarvadarshansamgraha'', which discussed all the religious schools of thought within the Hindu structure. The first chapter is "Atheism"—a very strong presentation of the argument in favor of atheism and materialism.}}

==Awards and honours==
Sen has received over 90 honorary degrees from universities around the world.<ref>{{cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae: Amartya Sen |url=http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/sen/files/cv_sen_amartya_jan2013_0.pdf |access-date=16 June 2014 |publisher=Harvard University |date=January 2013}}</ref> In 2019, [[London School of Economics]] announced the creation of the Amartya Sen Chair in Inequality Studies.<ref name="LSE2">{{cite web|title=LSE announces Amartya Sen Chair in Inequality Studies|date=14 March 2019 |url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2019/03-Mar-19/LSE-announces-Amartya-Sen-Chair-in-Inequality-Studies|publisher=[[London School of Economics]]|access-date=20 May 2019}}</ref>
* [[Adam Smith Prize]], 1954
* Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], 1981<ref name=AAAS>{{Citation |contribution=Chapter "S" |title=Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 1780–2013 |page=499 |publisher=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |year=2013 |url=https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/publications/bookofmembers/ChapterS.pdf |access-date= 16 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811073103/https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/publications/bookofmembers/ChapterS.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2014 |postscript=.}}</ref>
* Honorary fellowship by the [[Institute of Social Studies]], 1984
* Resident member of the [[American Philosophical Society]], 1997<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Amartya+Kumar+Sen&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=10 December 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
* [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]], 1998
* [[Bharat Ratna]], the highest civilian award in India, 1999
* Honorary citizenship of [[Bangladesh]], 1999
* Honorary [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]], UK, 2000
* Leontief Prize, 2000
* [[Eisenhower Fellowships#The Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service|Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service]], 2000
* 351st Commencement Speaker of [[Harvard University]], 2001
* International Humanist Award from the [[International Humanist and Ethical Union]], 2002
* Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, 2004
* Life Time Achievement award by Bangkok-based [[United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific]] (UNESCAP)
* [[Time 100]], 2010<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Ferguson |first=Niall |date=29 April 2010 |title=The 2010 TIME 100 – TIME |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1984685_1984745_1985494,00.html |access-date=24 November 2025 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>
* [[National Humanities Medal]], 2011<ref name="US National Medal Sen">{{cite web |title=President Obama Awards 2011 National Humanities Medals |url=http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2012-02-13-0 |publisher=[[National Endowment for the Humanities]] |date=13 December 2012 |access-date=16 June 2014}}</ref>
* [[Order of the Aztec Eagle]], 2012<ref>{{cite news |title=Professor Amartya Sen receives awards from the governments of France and Mexico |url=http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/july-august-2006-indo-chic/arguing-indian |access-date=16 June 2014|publisher=Harvard University &#124; Department of Economics |date=18 December 2012 }}</ref>
* Chevalier of the French [[Legion of Honour]], 2013<ref>{{cite web|title=Chevalier de la légion d'honneur à M. Amartya Sen |url=http://boston.consulfrance.org/Amartya-Sen-awarded-Legion-of-Honor-Medal-for-Achievements-in-Economics-and |access-date=24 June 2017|format=Given by Fabien Fieschi, Consul General of France in the USA|date=27 November 2012 }}</ref>
* 25 Greatest Global Living Legends in India by NDTV, 2013<ref>{{cite news |first=Deepshikha |last=Ghosh |title=If you get an honour you think you don't deserve, it's still very pleasant: Amartya Sen |url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/ndtv-25-latest/if-you-get-an-honour-you-think-you-don-t-deserve-it-s-still-very-pleasant-amartya-sen-458756?curl=1388509988 |publisher=NDTV |access-date=16 June 2014 |location=New Delhi |date=14 December 2013}}</ref>
* Top 100 thinkers who have defined our century by ''[[The New Republic]]'', 2014
* Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize, 2015<ref>{{cite news |title=Amartya Sen wins new UK award |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/world/indians-abroad/amartya-sen-wins-new-uk-award/ |work=The Indian Express |access-date=10 February 2015 |location=London |date=10 February 2015}}</ref>
* Albert O. Hirschman Prize, [[Social Science Research Council]], 2016
* [[Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science]], 2017
* [[Bodley Medal]], 2019<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2019/mar-27|title=Economist Amartya Sen awarded Bodley Medal|website=Bodleian Libraries|access-date=28 March 2019}}</ref>
* [[Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels]], 2020<ref>{{cite web |title=Friedenspreis 2020 Amartya Sen |url=https://www.friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de/alle-preistraeger-seit-1950/2020-2029/amartya-sen |access-date=17 June 2020 |language=de}}</ref>
* [[Princess of Asturias Awards|Princess of Asturias Award]], 2021<ref>{{Cite web|title=Laureates – Princess of Asturias Awards|url=https://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards/laureates/|access-date=26 May 2021|website=The Princess of Asturias Foundation|language=en}}</ref>
* In 2021, he received the prestigious Gold Medal from [[The National Institute of Social Sciences]].
* International Rescue Committee Freedom Award, 2023<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Rescue Committee Honors Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen with Freedom Award {{!}} The IRC |url=https://www.rescue.org/press-release/international-rescue-committee-honors-nobel-laureate-amartya-sen-freedom-award |access-date=24 November 2025 |website=www.rescue.org |language=en}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
===Books===
{{refbegin|40em}}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Choice of Techniques: An Aspect of the Theory of Planned Economic Development | publisher = Basil Blackwell | location = Oxford | year = 1960 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = On Economic Inequality | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1973 | edition = expanded | isbn = 9780198281931 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation | url = https://archive.org/details/povertyfamineses0000sena | url-access = registration | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1982 | isbn = 9780198284635 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Williams | first2 = Bernard | author-link2 = Bernard Williams | title = Utilitarianism and beyond | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | year = 1982 | isbn = 9780511611964 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Choice, Welfare, and Measurement | publisher = Basil Blackwell | location = Oxford | year = 1983 | isbn = 9780631137962 }}
::Reviewed in the ''Social Scientist'': {{Cite journal | last = Sanyal | first = Amal | title='Choice, welfare and measurement' by Amartya Sen | journal = Social Scientist | volume = 11 | issue = 10 | pages = 49–56 | doi = 10.2307/3517043 | date = October 1983 | jstor = 3517043 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Collective Choice and Social Welfare | publisher = Holden-Day | location = San Francisco, California | year = 1970 | edition = 1st | isbn = 9780816277650 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Resources, Values, and Development | publisher = Harvard University Press | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780674765269 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Commodities and Capabilities | edition = 1st | publisher = North-Holland Sole distributors for the U.S. and Canada, Elsevier Science Publishing Co. | location = New York | year = 1985 | isbn = 9780444877307 }}
::Reviewed in ''The Economic Journal''.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Sugden | first = Robert | s2cid = 152766121 | title='Commodities and Capabilities' by Amartya Sen | journal = The Economic Journal | volume = 96 | issue = 383 | pages = 820–822 | doi = 10.2307/2232999 | date = September 1986 | jstor = 2232999 }}</ref>
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = McMurrin | first2 = Sterling M. | author-link2 = Sterling M. McMurrin | title = The Tanner lectures on human values | publisher = University of Utah Press | location = Salt Lake City | year = 1986 | isbn = 9780585129334 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = On Ethics and Economics | publisher = Basil Blackwell | location = New York| year = 1987 | isbn = 9780631164012 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Drèze | first2 = Jean | author-link2 = Jean Drèze | title = Hunger and public action | url = https://archive.org/details/hungerpublicacti0000drze | url-access = registration | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford England New York | year = 1989 | isbn = 9780198286349 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Inequality Reexamined | url = https://archive.org/details/inequalityreexam0000sena | url-access = registration | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 1992 | isbn = 0674452550}}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Nussbaum | first2 = Martha | author-link2 = Martha Nussbaum | title = The Quality of Life | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford England New York | year = 1993 | isbn = 9780198287971 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Foster | first2 = James E. | title = On economic inequality | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1997 | series = Radcliffe Lectures | isbn = 9780198281931 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Drèze | first2 = Jean | author-link2 = Jean Drèze | title = India, economic development and social opportunity | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford England New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 9780198295280 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Suzumura | first2 = Kōtarō | last3 = Arrow | first3 = Kenneth J. | author-link2 = Kotaro Suzumura | author-link3 = Kenneth Arrow | title = Social Choice Re-examined: Proceedings of the IEA conference held at Schloss Hernstein, Berndorf, near Vienna, Austria | volume = 2 | edition = 1st | publisher = St. Martin's Press | location = New York | year = 1996 | isbn = 9780312127398 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Development as Freedom | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780198297581 | title-link = Development as Freedom }}
::Review in ''Asia Times''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Mathur|first=Piyush|title=Revisiting a classic 'Development as Freedom' by Amartya Sen |work= Asia Times |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/EJ31Dj01.html |date=31 October 2003 |access-date=15 June 2014 |url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825114213/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/EJ31Dj01.html |archive-date=25 August 2018}}</ref>
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Freedom, Rationality, and Social Choice: The Arrow Lectures and Other Essays | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | year = 2000 | isbn = 9780198296997 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Rationality and Freedom | url = https://archive.org/details/rationalityfreed00amar | url-access = registration | publisher = Belknap Press | location = Cambridge, MA | year = 2002 | isbn = 9780674013513 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Suzumura | first2 = Kōtarō | last3 = Arrow | first3 = Kenneth J. | author-link2 = Kotaro Suzumura | author-link3 = Kenneth Arrow | title = Handbook of social choice and welfare | publisher = Elsevier | location = Amsterdam Boston | year = 2002 | isbn = 9780444829146 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity | url = https://archive.org/details/argumentativeind00sena | url-access = registration | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | location = New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780312426026 }}
::Review ''The Guardian.''<ref>{{cite news| last = Mishra | first =Pankaj|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jul/09/featuresreviews.guardianreview15 |title=In defence of reason (book review) |work=The Guardian|date= 9 July 2005|access-date=10 July 2013 |location=London}}</ref>
::Review ''The Washington Post''.<ref>{{cite news | last=Tharoor |first=Shashi |title=A passage to India |newspaper= [[The Washington Post]] |location= Washington D.C. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301576.html |date= 16 October 2005|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref>
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny | url = https://archive.org/details/identityviolence00sena | url-access = registration | publisher = W.W. Norton & Co | series=Issues of our time | location = New York | year = 2006 | isbn = 9780393329292 }}
* {{cite magazine | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Imperial Illusions | magazine = The New Republic | date = 31 December 2007 | url = https://newrepublic.com/article/61784/imperial-illusions }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Zamagni | first2 = Stefano | last3 = Scazzieri | first3 = Roberto | author-link2 = Stefano Zamagni | title = Markets, money and capital: Hicksian economics for the twenty-first century | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge, UK New York | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780521873215 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = The Idea of Justice | publisher = Penguin | location = London | year = 2010 | isbn = 9780141037851 | title-link = The Idea of Justice (book) }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | last2 = Stiglitz | first2 = Joseph E. | last3 = Fitoussi | first3 = Jean-Paul | author-link2 = Joseph E. Stiglitz | author-link3 = Jean-Paul Fitoussi | title = Mismeasuring our lives: why GDP doesn't add up: the report | publisher = New Press Distributed by Perseus Distribution | location = New York | year = 2010 | isbn = 9781595585196 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Peace and Democratic Society | publisher = Open Book Publishers | location = Cambridge, UK | year = 2011 | isbn = 9781906924393 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Drèze | first1 = Jean | last2 = Sen | first2 = Amartya | title = An Uncertain Glory: The Contradictions of Modern India | publisher = Allen Lane | location = London | year = 2013 | isbn = 9781846147616}}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = The Country of First Boys: And Other Essays | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = India | year = 2015 | isbn = 9780198738183}}
* {{cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Home in the World: A Memoir| publisher = Penguin | location = London | year = 2020 | isbn = 9780141970981}}

===Chapters in books===
* {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution = Equality of what? (lecture delivered at Stanford University, 22 May 1979) | editor-last = MacMurrin | editor-first = Sterling M. | title = The Tanner lectures on human values | volume = 1 | publisher = University of Utah Press | location = Salt Lake City, Utah | year = 1980 | edition = 1st | isbn = 9780874801781 | postscript = . | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/tannerlectureson01salt }}
* {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution = The concept of development | title = Handbook of development economics | editor1-last = Srinivasan | editor1-first = T.N. | editor2-last = Chenery | editor2-first = Hollis | editor-link1 = T. N. Srinivasan | editor-link2 = Hollis B. Chenery | volume = 1 | pages = 2–23 | publisher = North-Holland Sole distributors for the U.S. and Canada, Elsevier Science Publishing Co. | location = Amsterdam New York New York, N.Y. | year = 1988 | isbn = 9780444703378 | postscript = . }}
* {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution = Capability and well-being | editor1-last = Nussbaum | editor1-first = Martha | editor2-last = Sen | editor2-first = Amartya | editor-link1= Martha Nussbaum | title = The quality of life | pages = 30–53 | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | year = 2004 | isbn = 9780415934411 | postscript = . }}
* {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution = Development as capability expansion | editor1-last = Kumar | editor1-first = A. K. Shiva | editor2-last = Fukuda-Parr | editor2-first = Sakiko | editor-link1 = A. K. Shiva Kumar | editor-link2 = Sakiko Fukuda-Parr | title = Readings in human development: concepts, measures and policies for a development paradigm | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = New Delhi New York | year = 2004 | isbn = 9780195670523 | postscript = . | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/readingsinhumand0000unse }}
::Reprinted in {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution = Development as capability expansion | editor1-last = Saegert | editor1-first = Susan | editor2-last = DeFilippis | editor2-first = James | editor-link1 = Susan Saegert | title = The community development reader | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780415507769 | postscript = . }}
* {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution="Justice" – definition | title = The new Palgrave dictionary of economics (8 volume set) | editor1-last = Durlauf | editor1-first = Steven N. | editor2-last = Blume | editor2-first = Lawrence E. | editor-link1 = Steven N. Durlauf | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | location = Basingstoke, Hampshire New York | edition = 2nd | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780333786765 | postscript = . }} See also: [[The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics]].
* {{Citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | contribution="Social choice"—definition | title = The new Palgrave dictionary of economics (8 volume set) | editor1-last = Durlauf | editor1-first = Steven N. | editor2-last = Blume | editor2-first = Lawrence E. | editor-link1 = Steven N. Durlauf | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | location = Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York | edition = 2nd | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780333786765 | postscript = . }} See also: [[The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics]].

===Journal articles===
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = An aspect of Indian agriculture | journal = Economic and Political Weekly | volume = 14 | pages = 243–246 |year = 1962 |url=http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1962_14/4-5-6/an_aspect_of_indian_agriculture.pdf}}
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = The impossibility of a paretian liberal | journal = [[Journal of Political Economy]] | volume = 78 | issue = 1 | pages = 152–157 | doi = 10.1086/259614 | date = Jan–Feb 1970 | jstor = 1829633 | bibcode = 1970JPoEc..78..152S | s2cid = 154193982 | url = http://darp.lse.ac.uk/PapersDB/Sen_(JPolE_70).pdf | access-date = 29 March 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131101134916/http://darp.lse.ac.uk/PapersDB/Sen_(JPolE_70).pdf | archive-date = 1 November 2013 | url-status = dead }}
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Poverty: An ordinal approach to measurement | journal = [[Econometrica]] | volume = 44 | issue = 2 | pages = 219–231 | doi = 10.2307/1912718 | date = March 1976 | jstor = 1912718 |url=http://dds.cepal.org/infancia/guia-para-estimar-la-pobreza-infantil/bibliografia/capitulo-III/Sen%20Amartya%20(1976)%20Poverty%20an%20ordinal%20approach%20to%20measurement.pdf }}
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Utilitarianism and welfarism | journal = [[The Journal of Philosophy]] | volume = 76 | issue = 9 | pages = 463–489 | doi = 10.2307/2025934 | date = September 1979 | jstor = 2025934 }}
* {{Cite book | last = Sen | first = Amartya | chapter = Chapter 22 Social choice theory | title = Handbook of Mathematical Economics | volume = 3 | pages = 1073–1181 | doi = 10.1016/S1573-4382(86)03004-7 | date = 1986 | isbn = 9780444861283 }}
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = More than 100 million women are missing | journal = [[The New York Review of Books]] | date = 20 December 1990 | volume = 37 | issue = 20 | url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/dec/20/more-than-100-million-women-are-missing/}}
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Missing women: social inequality outweighs women's survival advantage in Asia and North Africa | journal = [[British Medical Journal]] | volume = 304 | issue = 6827 | pages = 587–588 | doi = 10.1136/bmj.304.6827.587 | date = 7 March 1992 | pmid=1559085 | pmc=1881324|url=http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dludden/GenderInequalityMissingWomen.pdf}}
* {{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = The three R's of reform | journal = [[Economic and Political Weekly]] | volume = 40 | issue = 19 | pages = 1971–1974 | date = May 2005 | url = http://www.epw.in/special-articles/three-rs-reform.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140727140439/http://www.epw.in/special-articles/three-rs-reform.html | archive-date = 27 July 2014}}

===Lecture transcripts===
* Sen, Amartya (25 May 1997), ''Human Rights and Asian Values {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414224040/https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/archive/morgenthau/254/_res/id=Attachments/index=0/254_sen.pdf |date=14 April 2021 }}'', Sixteenth Annual Morgenthau Memorial Lecture on Ethics and Foreign Policy
* <!-- The possibility of social choice, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK (Nobel lecture)-->{{cite Q|Q123753560}}
* {{citation | last = Sen | first = Amartya | title = Reason before identity | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780199513895 | postscript = . }}
::News coverage of the ''[[Romanes Lecture#1990s|1998 Romanes Lecture]]'' in the ''Oxford University Gazette.''<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sen|first1=Amartya|title=Reason must always come before identity, says Sen|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1998-9/weekly/171298/news/story_2.htm|access-date=14 June 2014|publisher=University of Oxford|date=17 December 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922010438/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1998-9/weekly/171298/news/story_2.htm |archive-date=22 September 2017}}</ref>

===Papers===
* {{citation |last = Sen | first = Amartya |title=Food, economics and entitlements (wider working paper 1) |date=February 1986 | volume=1986/01 |publisher=UNU-WIDER |location=Helsinki |url=http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/previous/en_GB/wp-01/ | postscript = . }}

===Selected works in Persian===
A list of Persian translations of Amartya Sen's work is available here {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220174302/https://roozahang.com/Author/6973/?q=5 |date=20 December 2016 }}
{{refend}}

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[Abhijit Banerjee]]
* [[Equality of autonomy]], a concept of equality posed by Sen
* [[Feminist economics]]
* [[Human Development Index]]
* [[List of feminist economists]]
* [[Kerala model]], an expression or concept observed and introduced by Sen<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Jayan Jose |title=The Achievements and Challenges of the Kerala 'Model' |url=https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/achievements-challenges-kerala-model |website=The India Forum |date=27 June 2021 |access-date=29 November 2022}}</ref>
* [[Instrumental and value rationality]], describing some of his differences with John Rawls, [[Robert Nozick]], and James Gouinlock.
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Britz, Johannes, Anthony Hoffmann, Shana Ponelis, Michael Zimmer, and Peter Lor. 2013. "On Considering the Application of Amartya Sen's Capability Approach to an Information-Based Rights Framework." ''Information Development'' 29 (2): 106–13.
* {{Citation | last = Forman-Barzilai | first = Fonna | contribution = Taking a broader view of humanity: an interview with Amartya Sen. | editor-last = Browning | editor-first = Gary | editor2-last = Dimova-Cookson | editor2-first = Maria | editor3-last = Prokhovnik | editor3-first = Raia | editor-link3 = Raia Prokhovnik | title = Dialogues with contemporary political theorists | pages = 170–180 | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | location = Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780230303058 }}
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Various | title = Special issue, on Amartya Sen | journal = [[Feminist Economics (journal)|Feminist Economics]] | volume = 9 | issue = 2–3 | year = 2003 | url = http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfec20/9/2-3}}
* [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1998/sen/biographical/ Amartya Sen Biographical]

==External links==
{{Sister project links | wikt=no | commons=Amartya Sen | b=no | n=Calls for aid to help feed millions, as East Africa plunges into drought | q=Amartya Sen | s=no | v=no | voy=no | species=no | d=q132489}}
* [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen Amartya Sen] at [[Harvard University]]
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sLNFo0sAAAAJ Amartya Sen] on [[Google Scholar]]
* {{YouTube|id=ZwAxj5mnVRI|t=46s|title=Amartya Sen on Cultural Relativism and "the good life"}} on [[Berggruen Institute]]'s YouTube channel
* [https://ideas.repec.org/e/pse23.html Profile] and [http://econpapers.repec.org/RAS/pse23.htm Papers] at [[Research Papers in Economics]]/RePEc
* [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/862328301 Fearing Food edited by Julian Morris. Chapter on Sen]
* {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Amartya Sen (1933– ) |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Sen.html |encyclopedia=[[The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |edition=2nd |series=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |publisher=[[Liberty Fund]] |year=2008| isbn=978-0865976665 |editor-first=David R.|editor-last=Henderson |editor-link=David R. Henderson |pages=588–589}}
* {{C-SPAN|1017939}}

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