27 Facts About Tony Atkinson

Tony Atkinson worked on inequality and poverty for over four decades.

Tony Atkinson was born in Caerleon, a town in southern Wales near the border with England.

Tony Atkinson grew up in north Kent and attended Cranbrook School.

Tony Atkinson cited his interest in inequality as beginning from this period as a volunteering in a German hospital and from studying the work of Peter Townsend.

Tony Atkinson stayed there until 1992 when he returned to the University of Cambridge for two more years.

Tony Atkinson served as Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1994 to 2005.

Tony Atkinson became first interested in economics because of his experiences in Hamburg of the 1960s, but credited the book The Poor and the Poorest, by Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend, as having a large influence on his career goals.

Tony Atkinson mentored Thomas Piketty and collaborated with him repeatedly.

In turn, Tony Atkinson emphasized the optimism of his teacher James Meade writing, 'Above all, James had a positive vision for the future.

Tony Atkinson was, in his own words, 'an inveterate explorer of improvements in economic arrangements'.

Tony Atkinson examined how the wealthy disproportionately influence public policy and influence governments to implement policies that protect wealth.

Tony Atkinson presented a set of policies regarding technology, employment, social security, the sharing of capital, and taxation that could shift the inequality in income distribution in developed countries.

Tony Atkinson was one of the authors of the Chartbook of Economic Inequality, a resource widely employed to study the history of inequality.

Tony Atkinson had a long-standing interest in the measurement of poverty.

Tony Atkinson died before he was able to complete the book, but at his request it was edited for publication by two of his colleagues, John Micklewright and Andrea Brandolini.

Tony Atkinson recommended government intervention in markets such as employment guarantees and wage controls to influence the redistribution of economic rewards.

Tony Atkinson traced the history of inequality, coining the phrase the "inequality turn" to describe the period when household inequality began to rise around 1980.

Tony Atkinson, who worked on inequality and poverty for more than four decades, was a mentor to Thomas Piketty ; they worked together on building an historical database on top incomes.

Tony Atkinson had a large influence on the next generation of researchers.

Tony Atkinson advised at least sixty PhD students and 'in addition there are many other younger scholars whom he influenced directly through his collaboration on joint research project'.

Tony Atkinson was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1984, a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1974, Honorary Member of the American Economic Association in 1985 and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.

Tony Atkinson was President of the Econometric Society in 1988.

Tony Atkinson was knighted in 2000 and made a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in 2001.

Tony Atkinson was president of the board of the Luxembourg Income Study, having advised on its creation in the 1980s.

In 2016, Tony Atkinson received the Dan David Prize for 'combatting poverty'.

Tony Atkinson was married to Judith Mandeville, whom he met at Cambridge as an undergraduate.

Tony Atkinson died on 1 January 2017 from multiple myeloma in Oxford, England, aged 72.