Amartya Sen

Bio: Amartya Sen is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poverty & Human rights. The author has an hindex of 149, co-authored 689 publications receiving 141907 citations. Previous affiliations of Amartya Sen include Trinity College, Dublin & University of Chicago.

The world of smoking guns.

Abstract: I begin with a conundrum—freshly devised, but I hope adequately old-fashioned in spirit. What’s the difference between guns and cigarettes? The answer is that guns fire and kill first, and then they smoke, whereas cigarettes smoke first, and then they fire and kill. But if this contrast is right, then gun smoke has an evidential value that cigarette smoke does not immediately have, as the casualty from smoking is yet to come and might therefore be, to some extent, a matter of conjecture. This leads to the further question that must be dealt with in one form or another in a world conference like this one: how can we sensibly assess the harm that smoking does? Only after coming to grip with this question can we go on to decide what needs to be done here and now. This deliberative perspective may seem a bit too hesitant, especially in a gathering of this kind where the participants are basically convinced that the facts and the values involved in assessing smoking as a practice are all fairly well sorted out, and all that is needed now is urgent action. The connection between smoking and morbidity (including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other ailments) is indeed well established, but the idea of social harm raises, as the critics of interventionist policies have discussed, other issues as well. It is important for tobacco control enthusiasts to recognise that a huge proportion of the population at large as well as a great many caring and kind intellectuals are not at all convinced yet that extensive tobacco control is the right way to go. The counterpoints are many, and they all need to be dealt with, for the battle for tobacco control is not just for new laws or new government policies but also for the …

Delivering the Monterrey Consensus: Which Consensus?

Abstract: 1. Connections and Differences 2. Consensus and Doubts 3. Old Problems and New Challenges 4. The Role of Markets in a Multi-institutional Framework 5. Trade, Investment and Financing 6. Broadening the Perspective 7. A Concluding Remark Appendix

On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and functioning. Current research on well-being has been derived from two general perspectives: the hedonic approach, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; and the eudaimonic approach, which focuses on meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning. These two views have given rise to different research foci and a body of knowledge that is in some areas divergent and in others complementary. New methodological developments concerning multilevel modeling and construct comparisons are also allowing researchers to formulate new questions for the field. This review considers research from both perspectives concerning the nature of well-being, its antecedents, and its stability across time and culture.

Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices

Abstract: A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Agriculturalists are the principal managers of global useable lands and will shape, perhaps irreversibly, the surface of the Earth in the coming decades. New incentives and policies for ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem services will be crucial if we are to meet the demands of improving yields without compromising environmental integrity or public health.

Dynamics of dark energy

Abstract: We review in detail a number of approaches that have been adopted to try and explain the remarkable observation of our accelerating universe. In particular we discuss the arguments for and recent progress made towards understanding the nature of dark energy. We review the observational evidence for the current accelerated expansion of the universe and present a number of dark energy models in addition to the conventional cosmological constant, paying particular attention to scalar field models such as quintessence, K-essence, tachyon, phantom and dilatonic models. The importance of cosmological scaling solutions is emphasized when studying the dynamical system of scalar fields including coupled dark energy. We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations allowing us to confront them with the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure and demonstrate how it is possible in principle to reconstruct the equation of state of dark energy by also using Supernovae Ia observational data. We also discuss in detail the nature of tracking solutions in cosmology, particle physics and braneworld models of dark energy, the nature of possible future singularities, the effect of higher order curvature terms to avoid a Big Rip singularity, and approaches to modifying gravity which leads to a late-time accelerated expansion without recourse to a new form of dark energy.