Amartya K. Sen

Amartya Sen "is Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until recently the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has served as President of the Econometric Society, the Indian Economic Association, the American Economic Association and the International Economic Association. He was formerly Honorary President of OXFAM and is now its Honorary Advisor. Born in Santiniketan, India, Amartya Sen studied at Presidency College in Calcutta, India, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is an Indian citizen. He was Lamont University Professor at Harvard also earlier, from1988 – 1998, and previous to that he was the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University, and a Fellow of All Souls College (he is now a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls). Prior to that he was Professor of Economics at Delhi University and at the London School of Economics." 

Sen is a 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics. He is married to Emma Rothschild.

Affiliations

 * Director, Center for Global Development
 * Director, Global Humanitarian Forum
 * Director, Nuclear Threat Initiative
 * Former Director, International Center for Research on Women
 * Director, The Hunger Project
 * Advisory Board, Health Impact Fund
 * Advisory Board, International Development Economics Associates
 * Advisory Council, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
 * Advisory Board, Institute for New Economic Thinking
 * Advisory Board, Partners in Health
 * Advisory Board, Knowledge Ecology International
 * Advisory Board, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis
 * Advisory Council, BRAC USA
 * Trustee, Population Council
 * Former International Advisory Board member, Auroville Foundation
 * Research Associate and Program Director, Global Equity Initiative
 * Advisory Committee, Oxford Policy and Human Development Initiative
 * External Advisory Board, Global Development and the Environment Institute
 * International Advisory Board, MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice
 * Patron, WOMANKIND Worldwide
 * Advisory Council, Namati

Views on Tobacco and Smoking
Sen argues against the libertarian view that smoking is an issue of personal freedom. As a keynote speaker at the 13th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in 2006 in Washington, D.C., Sen stated that use of the argument that tobacco helps government earn revenue is not a good idea. On the contrary, Sen stated, "It’s a silly idea to earn revenue out of tobacco sales." He further pointed out that the claim that smoking is an issue of personal liberty is invalid, since smoking brings with it enormous social costs and affects the lives of others, too. Sen asks, if a tobacco user can lay claim to public health care, then how valid is his claim that smoking is a personal choice (pointing out that the smoker does not exist in isolation and depends on society to help him cope with his resulting health problems).

Sen authored an article in the February 12, 2007 edition of the Financial Times titled, "Unrestrained smoking is a libertarian half-way house" in which he argued,


 * Libertarian logic for non-interference, when consistently explored, can have extraordinarily stern implications in invalidating the right to assistance from the society when one is hit by self-harming behaviour. If that annulment is not accepted, then the case for libertarian "immunity" from interference is also correspondingly undermined.