Angus Deaton wins 2015 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences

British economist Angus Deaton won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences for "his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

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

The economics prize, 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. 

Deaton also made a number of contributions to the best ways to compare welfare across time & countries #NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/k7XCGqAuG3

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 12, 2015

After the announcement was made, the Nobel Prize committee called Deaton where he answered a few questions from the press. Here are some of the questions from the conference:

Do you believe that extreme poverty will keep falling?

Angus Deaton said he does, but "he doesn’t want to be a blind optimist. There are enormous numbers of people in the world still in poverty, and tremendous health problems among adults and children.

Given your work on poverty, what is your take on the refugee crisis?

"What we are seeing now is the result of hundreds of years of unequal development in the rich world, which has left a lot of the world behind." Adding, "Those people who have been left behind want a better life, and that is putting enormous pressure on the boundaries between the poor world and the rich."

Watch: Announcement of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

(With agency inputs)

Read: 7 things you need to know about Nobel Prize for the Economic Sciences​