The Nobel Prize Winner for Economics...

...is a man whose book I have actually read.

*checks window for flying pigs*

 Angus Deaton has done close and illuminating work in development economics for years.  His most recent book is  The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality.  I picked this up when I was reading up on effective aid and development, and from the title pretty much expected a philosophical tract decrying Western Civ et al.

I was wrong on two counts - firstly, there is a LOT of math.  Secondly, as far as I can tell Deaton doesn't much care about Western Civ or the many alleged injustices of its past.

He cares that people who are poor get sick and die faster than those of us who are not.  And he looks for ways to fix that poverty thing. (By vastly improving the models used to count poor people, so the experiments can be replicated/tracked.  If you can't count something, it doesn't count.) Plus! Deaton's language is clear and engaging.  And did I mention the math?  There is math.And footnotes.