Professor Sir Tony Atkinson was an academic economist particularly concerned with issues of social justice and the design of public policy. He has been writing on economics since the 1960s, when his first book was on poverty in Britain and his second on the unequal distribution of wealth. Together with Joe Stiglitz he wrote Lectures in Public Economics. His late work focused on top incomes, contributing to the World Wealth and Income Database, and on monitoring rising inequality across the world. This site gives an overview of his academic work.
Research Interests
Professor Atkinson was a researcher in economics and focused on the economics of income distribution and poverty.
His research is concerned with:
- Distribution of income and wealth
- Poverty and the welfare state
- European social agenda
- Global public economics
- Welfare economics
- Long-run evolution of distribution of income and wealth
- Global poverty
- Top incomes and the gender divide
- European social monitoring
- Top incomes in British colonies
Obituaries
The Economic and Labour Relations Review published an entire ‘Symposium on inequality in honour of Tony Atkinson‘ in March 2018. A table of contents is here.
Anthony Atkinson, a British economist and expert on inequality, died on January 1st – by The Economist
Anthony B. Atkinson, Economist Who Pioneered Study of Inequality, Dies at 72 – by Sewell Chan for the New York Times
Sir Tony Atkinson, economist and campaigner, 1944-2017 – by Chris Giles and Sarah O’Connor for the Financial Times
Sir Tony Atkinson obituary – by Nicholas Stern in The Guardian
Remembering Tony Atkinson as the architect of modern public economics – by the historian of economics Beatrice Cherrier
Atkinson, Anthony Barnes, 1944-2017 – British Academy fellow memoir, by Andrea Brandolini, Stephen P. Jenkins and John Micklewright
Inequality and economics: Tony Atkinson’s enduring lessons – on VoxEU by Andrea Brandolini
Economist Professor Sir Tony Atkinson ‘pioneered the study of inequality’ – published by the University of Oxford
Tony Atkinson 1944–2017: A lifetime commitment to the study of inequality – by Agnar Sandmo in The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
Remembering Tony Atkinson – by Janet Gornick at LIS
Counting our losses – by Angus Deaton for the Royal Economic Society
Putting people first: The legacy of Tony Atkinson – by Salvatore Morelli [also published here in Italian in Etica Economia]
Tony Atkinson never stopped believing in an alternative – Tom Clark in Prospect Magazine
Economist Tony Atkinson, who influenced India studies, dies at 72 – Prasun Sonwalkar in the Hindustan Times
Tony Atkinson 1944 – 2017 – Written by several colleagues at the London School of Economics
Remembering Tony Atkinson – by Richard Blundell and Ian Preston in Fiscal Studies
Colleagues from ECINEQ remembering Tony Atkinson – written by 25 of his colleagues
Professor Sir Tony Atkinson, 1944 – 2017 – by the Oxford Martin School
Tony Atkinson (1944 – 2017) and the measurement of global poverty – by Francisco Ferreira and Ana Revenga for the World Bank
Sir Tony Atkinson 1944-2017 – Holly Sutherland on Tony Atkinson’s role in building Euromod
Tony Atkinson is the economist who had the measure of inequality – by Andrew Leigh for the Canberra Times
Tony – Frances Woolley remembers her PhD supervisor
Passing of Anthony B. Atkinson – by Thomas Piketty
Tony’s Passing – by Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Salvatore Morelli, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman from the WID
Sir Tony Atkinson, ‘godfather of inequality research’ – in The Telegraph
The Legacy of Tony Atkinson – Great Analyst of Inequality – by Mattia Baglieri on ResetDOC
Sir Tony Atkinson – in The Times
Tony Atkinson has died – by Miles Corak
Anthony Atkinson (1944 – 2017) – by Richard Blundell and Ian Preston published on the website of the Econometric Society
Sir Anthony Atkinson (1944 – 2017) – published at University College London
Remembering Sir Tony Atkinson – by Alan Harrison and University of Essex
Sir Tony Atkinson, economist and “gentleman scholar” – by Kate McFarland in BIEN
The economist who battled against inequality has died – in Luxemburger Wort
In Memoriam – Tony Atkinson, 1944-2017 – by Ravi Kanbur on the Human Development and Capability Association website
Anthony Atkinson Illuminated the Economics of Inequality – in the Wall Street Journal
Tony Atkinson nos deja una frontera más: recuperar para la economía su carácter de ciencia moral – by Andrea Lucai (in Spanish)
Tony Atksinon, la scomparsa di un maestro – by Alessandra Casarico (in Italian)
Tony Atkinson, una vita contro la disuguaglianza – by Andrea Brandolini (in Italian)
Anthony Atkinson e l’aritmetica politica del XXI secolo – by Marco Ranaldi (in Italian)
Tony Atkinson, l’europeista – by Francesco Figari (in Italian)
Una carriera contro le disuguaglianze: l’eredità intellettuale di Anthony Atkinson – by Salvatore Morelli on ASVIS (in Italian)
L’eredità di Atkinson, il padre dello studio delle diseguaglianze – by Marta Fana (in Italian)
Nachruf auf Tony Atkinson – by Wilfried Altzinger (in German)
Der Ökonom Tony Atkinson und sein Beitrag für die Armuts- und Ungleichheitsforschung – by Stefan Sell (in German)
Der große Ungleichheitsforscher ist tot – Armbruster und Braunberger in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German)
Britischer Ökonom Atkinson ist tot – in Der Spiegel (in German)
Nachruf auf Tony Atkinson: Ungleichheit und Armut – Ulrike Herrmann in TAZ (in German)
Αντίο, Τόνι Ατκινσον – by Georgia Kaplanoglou in ‘Efimerida ton Sintakton’ (in Greek)
Ongelijkheidsgoeroe Tony Atkinson overleden – by Peter de Waard in de Volkskrant (in Dutch)
Hommage à Anthony Atkinson, le défricheur des inégalités – by François Bourguignon in Les Echos (in French)
Anthony B. Atkinson (1944—2017) – Maria Berg Reinertsen in Morgenbladet (in Norwegian)
Ulikhetene og fattigdommen kan bekjempes – Aksel Braanen Sterri in Dagbladet (in Norwegian)
Morre economista célebre por estudos sobre a desigualdade social – in Valor (in Portuguese)
