I’ve finished reading Angus Deaton’s The Great Escape and can highly recommend it to those interested in the issues of well-being. The substantive issues discussed concerning health and wealth inequality make it an important read but there are other aspects that add to its appeal.

First, I particularly enjoyed that Deaton actually discusses data(!) and presents it in a very clear visual manner (yay for bubble charts). Second, I found it reassuring that Deaton seems simultaneously a strong advocate for the behavioural sciences while at the same time having a clear understanding of their limitations. For example, when discussing the theory and practice of survey design in measuring poverty, Deaton discussed the use of retrospective reports, in particular, questioning individuals about their household consumption in the past 30, or, alternatively, 7 days. Deaton makes clear that these small differences lead to very different reports and, consequently, very different conclusions about poverty in a country (India). Soberingly, Deaton concludes “To put it more brutally, the truth is that we have little idea what we are doing, and it is certainly a mistake to let anything important depend on such numbers.”

More research is needed.