Amartya Sen's Nobel Prize-winning research challenged the conventional explanation for famines. What did he argue instead?
- Famines occur due to sudden drops in total food production caused by drought
- Famines arise from entitlement failures — loss of ability to obtain food even when it is available
- Famines result from population growth outstripping agricultural capacity
- Famines are caused by deliberate food hoarding by traders and merchants
Answer: Famines are caused by failures of entitlement — loss of the legal or economic ability to acquire food — not by actual food shortages
Sen's 1981 book Poverty and Famines examined historical famines in Bengal (1943), Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and the Sahel and found that food supplies had not necessarily collapsed during these events. People starved because they lost the entitlements — wages, property, purchasing power — that allowed them to access food that was physically present. This entitlement framework changed how economists and aid agencies approach famine prevention.