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Angus Deaton just won a Nobel prize (but no, it's not the man you're thinking of)

Cue jokes galore.

ANGUS DEATON HAS been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. And before you ask, no it’s not Angus Deayton.

Today’s winner is the Scottish-born Princeton professor Angus Deaton (without a ‘y’).

In awarding him the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences the, Nobel Committee writes that he’s been given the award “for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare”.

The committee goes on to say that his work revolves around three central questions:

  • How do consumers distribute their spending among different goods?
  • How much of society’s income is spent and how much is saved?
  • How do we best measure and analyse welfare and poverty?

These questions were used by Deaton to argue that, “to design economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, we must first understand individual consumption choices.”

But, predictably, much of the Twitter reaction to his win has been a lot of jokes and a smattering of confusion about his namesake, the actor and former BBC Have I Got News For You presenter Angus Deayton.

Deayton (with a ‘y’) famously lost his role as the presenter of the long-running quiz show in 2002 after a series of tabloid stories about his use of cocaine and prostitutes.

His subsequent appearance on his own show when he was ridiculed by the panellists is perhaps the show’s most famous moment.

Many couldn’t resist poking fun: 

Others just thought it was a little too obvious. That’s you told.  

Read: That time the Nobel physics prize was accidentally given to the wrong person >

Read: Irish-born scientist given a Nobel Prize for his work fighting a horrible parasite >

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