British economist Angus Deaton has won the 2015 economics Nobel Prize for “his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday, October 12.

“To design economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, we must first understand individual consumption choices. More than anyone else, Angus Deaton has enhanced this understanding,” the award-giving body said while announcing the 8 million Swedish crown ($978,000) prize.

A picture of British economist Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 economics Nobel Prize, is seen on a screen as Goran K. Hansson (C), permanent secretary for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Tore Ellingsen (L), chairman of the prize committee, and Jakob Svensson, member of the Academy, address a news conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, in Stockholm, Sweden | Source: Reuters

The economics prize which is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It was not part of the original group of awards set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel’s 1895 will.

(With inputs from Reuters)