Max Roser Explained

Max Roser
Birth Place:Kirchheimbolanden, West Germany
Institution:Nuffield College, Oxford
Oxford Martin School
Field:Economics of income distribution, poverty, global development, global health
Influences:Tony Atkinson, Amartya Sen, Angus Deaton, Hans Rosling
Website:

Max Roser (born 1983) is an economist and philosopher who focuses on large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality.[1] [2]

Roser is professor at the University of Oxford where he directs the program on global development, based at the Oxford Martin School. He is the founder and director of the research publication Our World in Data.[3]

Early life and education

Roser was born in Kirchheimbolanden, Germany, a village close to the border with France. In 1999, he and a friend won a prize in the German youth science competition with a model of a self-navigating vacuum cleaner.[4] Der Spiegel reported that he travelled the length of the Nile from the mouth to the source, and that he crossed the Himalayas and the Andes.[5]

He has two undergraduate degrees (in geoscience and philosophy) and two master's degrees (in economics, and philosophy). Roser completed his dissertation in 2011 at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.[6]

Career

In 2012, inequality and poverty researcher Tony Atkinson hired Roser at the University of Oxford where he collaborated with Piketty, Morelli, and Atkinson.[7] In 2015, he established a research team at the University of Oxford which is studying global development.[8]

He founded Our World In Data, a scientific web publication with the goal to present "research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems."[9] During the first years he financed his project by working as a bicycle tour guide around Europe.[10]

Our World In Data covers a range of aspects of development: global health, food provision, the growth and distribution of incomes, violence, rights, wars, technology, education, and environmental changes, among others. The publication makes use of data visualisations which are licensed under Creative Commons and are widely used in research, in the media, and as teaching material.[11] In 2019 he worked with Y Combinator on Our World in Data.[12]

Motivation

Roser said that there are three messages of his work: "The world is much better; The world is awful; The world can be much better". He listed global poverty, inequality, existential risks, human rights abuse, and humanity's environmental impact among the world's most severe problems.[13]

About his motivation for this work he wrote "The mission of this work has never changed: from the first days in 2011 Our World in Data focussed on the big global problems and asked how it is possible to make progress against them. The enemies of this effort were also always the same: apathy and cynicism."[14] He said that "it is because the world is terrible still that it is so important to write about how the world became a better place."[15]

He is critical of the mass media's excessive focus on single events which he claims is not helpful in understanding "the long-lasting, forceful changes that reshape our world, as well as the large, long-standing problems that continue to confront us."[16] [17] [18] In contrast to the event-focussed reporting of the news media Roser advocates the adoption of a broader perspective on global change, and in particular a focus on those living in poverty. The focus on the upper classes, especially in historical perspective, is misleading since it is not exposing the hardship of those in the worst living conditions.[19]

He advocates looking at larger trends in poverty, education, health and violence since these are slowly, but persistently changing the world and are neglected in the reporting of today's mass media.

He is known for his research how global living conditions are changing and his visualisations of these trends.[20] [21] [22] He has shown that in many societies in the past a large share (over 40%) of children died.[23]

Research

Roser's research is concerned with global problems such as poverty, climate change, child mortality and inequality. In 2015 research with Tony Atkinson, Brian Nolan and others he studied how the benefits from economic growth are distributed.[24] [25] [26]

In October 2019 he co-authored a study of child mortality. It was the first global study that mapped child death on the level of subnational district.[27] The study, published in Nature, was described as an important step to make action possible that further reduces child mortality.[28]

He and Felix Pretis found that the growth rate in CO2 emission intensity exceeded the projections of all climate scenarios.[29] With Jesus Crespo Cuaresma he studied the history of international trade and its impact on economic inequality.[30]

Roser has criticized the practice of focusing on the international poverty line alone. In his research he suggests a poverty at 10.89 international-$ per day.[31] The researchers say this is the minimum level people needed to have access to basic healthcare. The reason for the low global poverty line is to focus the attention on the world's very poorest population.[32] He proposes using several different poverty lines to understand what is happening to global poverty.

In global health research he studied the impact of poverty on poor health and disease and contributed to a textbook on global health.[33] [34] His most cited article, coauthored with Hannah Ritchie and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, is concerned with global population growth.[35]

Roser is a regular speaker at conferences where he presents empirical data on how the world is changing.[36] He is part of the Statistical Advisory Panel of UNDP.[37] UN Secretary-General António Guterres invited him to internal retreats attended by the heads of the UN institutions to speak about his global development research.[38]

Tina Rosenberg emphasised in The New York Times that Roser's work presents a "big picture that’s an important counterpoint to the constant barrage of negative world news."[39] Angus Deaton cites Roser in his book The Great Escape.[40] His research is cited in academic journals including Science,[41] Nature,[42] and The Lancet.[43] [44]

Data visualization

The data visualization expert Edward Tufte repeatedly cited and reprinted the work by Max Roser in his books.[45] [46]

Roser developed a global cartogram in which the area of each country represents the size of the country’s population. He published it open access and it became widely used in the media (including the FT, The Economist, and in open source applications).

Awards

In 2019 he was listed in second place among the "World’s Top 50 Thinkers" by Prospect Magazine.[47]

In 2019 Our World in Data won the Lovie Award, the European web award, "in recognition of their outstanding use of data and the internet to supply the general public with understandable data-driven research – the kind necessary to invoke social, economic, and environmental change."[48]

In 2021 he received the Covid Innovation Heroes Award "for an outstanding contribution to public understanding for helping people across the world see, and more importantly understand, critical pandemic data."[49]

In 2022 he was selected as one of "The Future Perfect 50", as one of 50 scientists and writers who are building a better future.[50]

External links

Work

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Akhtar . Muizz . 2022-10-20 . Max Roser doesn't want us to lose sight of progress . 2023-05-11 . . en . 11 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230511125140/https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23376822/future-perfect-50-max-roser-our-world-in-data . live .
  2. Web site: Dr Max Roser . 2023-05-11 . . en . 11 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230511125143/https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/people/max-roser/ . live .
  3. Web site: Our World in Data . Global Health Education and Learning Incubator, Harvard University . 11 May 2023 . 14 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230514053627/https://repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/12126/ . live .
  4. Web site: imfernsehen GmbH & Co. KG . 3 July 1999 . Tigerenten Club Folge 183 Jugend forscht '99 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190825114019/https://www.fernsehserien.de/tigerenten-club/folgen/183-folge-183-697306 . August 25, 2019 . August 25, 2019 . Fernsehserien.de . de.
  5. News: Schmundt . Hilmar . 2016-01-02 . Statistiken Frohe Botschaft . de . 1 . . live . 2016-02-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160207093331/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-140750282.html . 2016-02-07.
  6. News: mb . February 2016 . Gute Nachrichten . de . 2016 . 49 . zukunft forschung . . 2 . 11 May 2023 . 11 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230511125144/https://www.uibk.ac.at/forschung/magazin/17/seite49.pdf . live .
  7. News: INET Oxford Highlights: 2012—2014 . . live . 2019-08-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190824094723/https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/files/INET_Highlights_Report_2012-14.pdf . 2019-08-24.
  8. Web site: The Oxford Martin Programme on Global Development . 2023-05-11 . Oxford Martin School . en . 5 June 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190605202726/https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/global-development/ . live .
  9. Web site: Our World in Data . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200222015953/https://ourworldindata.org/ . 2020-02-22 . 2019-08-24 . Our World in Data.
  10. Web site: History of Our World in Data . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210320025119/https://ourworldindata.org/history-of-our-world-in-data . 2021-03-20 . 2019-10-29 . Our World in Data.
  11. Web site: Media Coverage of OurWorldInData.org — Our World in Data. ourworldindata.org. 2015-09-27. 2015-11-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20151104060054/http://ourworldindata.org/media-coverage/. live.
  12. Web site: Our World in Data is at Y Combinator. Our World in Data. 2019-08-24. 2021-03-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20210320025122/https://ourworldindata.org/owid-at-ycombinator. live.
  13. Web site: Die Menschheit war früher viel gewalttätiger . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150907104358/http://jetzt.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/593935/1/Alles-wird-gut . 2015-09-07 . 2015-09-27 . Süddeutsche Zeitung.
  14. Web site: History of Our World in Data . 2023-05-11 . Our World in Data . 20 March 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210320025119/https://ourworldindata.org/history-of-our-world-in-data . live .
  15. Web site: Roser . Max . 20 July 2022 . The world is much better; The world is awful; The world can be much better . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20181107145209/https://ourworldindata.org/much-better-awful-can-be-better . 2018-11-07 . 2018-11-07 . Our World in Data.
  16. Web site: About. Our World in Data. 2019-08-24. 2018-10-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20181005151814/https://ourworldindata.org/about. live.
  17. Web site: Dr Max Roser People Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. www.inet.ox.ac.uk. Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. 2015-09-27. 2015-09-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20150919093214/http://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/people/view/39. live.
  18. Web site: Data Stories #57: Visualizing Human Development with Max Roser . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150929132944/http://datastori.es/data-stories-57-human-dev-w-max-roser/ . 2015-09-29 . 2015-10-24 . Data Stories. 8 July 2015 .
  19. News: Roser . Max . 2015-03-27 . Income inequality: poverty falling faster than ever but the 1% are racing ahead . The Guardian . live . 2015-09-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150927220437/http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/mar/27/income-inequality-rising-falling-worlds-richest-poorest . 2015-09-27.
  20. News: Here's how many people have died in war in the last 600 years . . dead . 2015-09-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150927185921/http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2015/05/29/heres-how-many-people-have-died-in-war-in-the-last-600-years/ . 2015-09-27.
  21. Web site: Matthews . Dylan . 2015-02-10 . How Obama's optimism about the world explains his foreign policy . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20151010234326/http://www.vox.com/2015/2/10/8001973/obama-world-getting-better . 2015-10-10 . 2015-09-27 . Vox.
  22. Web site: Rudež . Tanja . 30 October 2014 . Zbog ebole i terorizma čini nam se da je svijet užasan, ali istina je suprotna: Nikad nam nije bilo ovako dobro . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150928010500/http://www.jutarnji.hr/nova-studija-s-oxforda-o-razvoju-svijeta--nikad-nam-nije-bilo-ovako-dobro-/1231993/ . 2015-09-28 . 2015-09-27 . . hr.
  23. Web site: Roser . Max . 11 April 2023 . Mortality in the past – around half died as children . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190824094726/https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality-in-the-past . 2019-08-24 . 2019-08-24 . Our World in Data.
  24. Nolan . Brian . Roser . Max . Thewissen . Stefan . 2019 . GDP Per Capita Versus Median Household Income: What Gives Rise to the Divergence Over Time and how does this Vary Across OECD Countries? . . 65 . 3 . 465–494 . 10.1111/roiw.12362 . 1475-4991 . 158875885.
  25. Smeeding . Tim . Roser . Max . Nolan . Brian . Kenworthy . Lane . Thewissen . Stefan . 2018-05-15 . Rising Income Inequality and Living Standards in OECD Countries: How Does the Middle Fare? . live . Journal of Income Distribution . 27 . 2 . 1–23 . 1874-6322 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190824154954/https://jid.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jid/article/view/40351 . 2019-08-24 . 2019-08-24.
  26. Web site: Atkinson, Hasell, Morelli, and Roser . The Chartbook of Economic Inequality – Data on Economic Inequality over the long-run . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190920011529/https://www.chartbookofeconomicinequality.com/ . 2019-09-20 . 2019-08-24 . www.chartbookofeconomicinequality.com.
  27. Burstein . Roy . Henry . Nathaniel J. . Collison . Michael L. . Marczak . Laurie B. . Sligar . Amber . Watson . Stefanie . Marquez . Neal . Abbasalizad-Farhangi . Mahdieh . Abbasi . Masoumeh . Abd-Allah . Foad . Abdoli . Amir . October 2019 . Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017 . . 574 . 7778 . 353–358 . 2019Natur.574..353B . 10.1038/s41586-019-1545-0 . 1476-4687 . 6800389 . 31619795 . free.
  28. Bachelet . Michelle . Michelle Bachelet . 2019-10-16 . Data on child deaths are a call for justice . . 574 . 7778 . 297 . 2019Natur.574..297B . 10.1038/d41586-019-03058-6 . 31619786 . free.
  29. Pretis . Felix . Roser . Max . 2017-09-15 . Carbon dioxide emission-intensity in climate projections: Comparing the observational record to socio-economic scenarios . . 135 . 718–725 . 10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.119 . 0360-5442 . 5625523 . 29033490 . free.
  30. Roser . Max . Cuaresma . Jesus Crespo . 2012-07-01 . Borders Redrawn: Measuring the Statistical Creation of International Trade . Rochester, NY . 2111864.
  31. Sterck . Olivier . Roser . Max . Ncube . Mthuli . Thewissen . Stefan . 5 February 2018 . Allocation of development assistance for health: is the predominance of national income justified? . . 33 . suppl_1 . i14–i23 . 10.1093/heapol/czw173 . 0268-1080 . 5886300 . 29415236.
  32. Web site: Hasell . Joe . Roser . Max . 5 February 2019 . How do we know the history of extreme poverty? . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20211207002735/https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods . 2021-12-07 . 2019-03-04 . Our World in Data.
  33. Thewissen. Stefan. Ncube. Mthuli. Roser. Max. Sterck. Olivier. 2018-02-01. Allocation of development assistance for health: is the predominance of national income justified?. Health Policy and Planning. 33. suppl_1. i14–i23. 10.1093/heapol/czw173. 29415236. 5886300. 0268-1080.
  34. Book: Kohler . Stefan . Roser . Max . Geldsetzer . Pascal . Bärnighausen . Till . De Gruyter . 2021 . 978-3-11-044847-4 . Bonk . Mathias . 523–556 . de . Ökonomie und globale Gesundheit . Economics and Global Health . 10.1515/9783110448474-020 . Ulrichs . Timo . free.
  35. Web site: Max Roser - Google Scholar Citations. scholar.google.com. 2019-11-09. 2022-08-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20220806233437/https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=93855cwAAAAJ. live.
  36. 2015-10-15. Max Roser WIRED 2015 talk: good data will make you an economic optimist (Wired UK). Wired UK. 2015-10-24. 2015-10-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20151018164437/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-10/15/max-roser-data-visualisation-wired-2015. live.
  37. Web site: Human Development Reports . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20191101035557/http://hdr.undp.org/en/towards-hdr-2019 . 2019-11-01 . 2019-11-02 . www.hdr.undp.org.
  38. Web site: Roser . Max . July 10, 2018 . The past and future of global change – Max's slides for his talk at the UN . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20181107010218/https://ourworldindata.org/max-un-slides . 2018-11-07 . 2018-11-06 . Our World in Data.
  39. Web site: Rosenberg . Tina . 2015-04-09 . Turning to Big, Big Data to See What Ails the World . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230511125140/https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/turning-to-big-big-data-to-see-what-ails-the-world/ . 11 May 2023 . 2023-05-11 . . en.
  40. Book: The Great Escape . 2013-09-23 . 978-0-691-15354-4 . en . 11 May 2023 . 11 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230511125143/https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691153544/the-great-escape . live . Deaton . Angus . Princeton University Press .
  41. Nagendra. Harini. DeFries. Ruth. 2017-04-21. Ecosystem management as a wicked problem. Science. 356. 6335. 265–270. 10.1126/science.aal1950. 0036-8075. 28428392. 2017Sci...356..265D. 11224600.
  42. Topol. Eric J.. January 2019. High-performance medicine: the convergence of human and artificial intelligence. Nature Medicine. 25. 1. 44–56. 10.1038/s41591-018-0300-7. 30617339. 57574615. 1546-170X.
  43. Mpanju-Shumbusho. Winnie. Woo. Hyun Ju. Wegbreit. Jennifer. Tulloch. James. Staley. Kenneth. Singh. Balbir. Shanks. Dennis. Rolfe. Ben. Roh. Michelle. 2019-09-21. Malaria eradication within a generation: ambitious, achievable, and necessary. The Lancet. en. 394. 10203. 1056–1112. 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31139-0. 0140-6736. 31511196. 202044083. 2019-09-22. 2022-08-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20220806233439/https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)31139-0/fulltext. live.
  44. Yamin. Alicia Ely. Uprimny. Rodrigo. Periago. Mirta Roses. Ooms. Gorik. Koh. Howard. Hossain. Sara. Goosby. Eric. Evans. Timothy Grant. DeLand. Katherine. 2019-05-04. The legal determinants of health: harnessing the power of law for global health and sustainable development. The Lancet. en. 393. 10183. 1857–1910. 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30233-8. 0140-6736. 31053306. 7159296. free.
  45. Web site: Edward Tufte: Books - Seeing with Fresh E . 2024-08-06 . www.edwardtufte.com.
  46. Web site: Striving for Graphical Excellence with Edward Tufte . 2024-08-06 . Ask your data . de.
  47. Web site: Prospect Team . 16 July 2019 . The world's top 50 thinkers 2019 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190828121132/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/prospect-worlds-top-50-thinkers-2019 . 2019-08-28 . 2019-08-24 . Prospect.
  48. Web site: Meet The 2019 Lovie Awards Special Achievement Winners. 2019-10-07. The Lovie Awards. 2019-10-29. 2019-10-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20191016172421/https://www.lovieawards.eu/features/2019-winners-announced/. live.
  49. Web site: Covid Innovation Heroes Awards . 2024-08-06 . The Oxford Trust . en-US.
  50. Web site: Chittal . Nisha . 2022-10-20 . The Future Perfect 50 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230511125141/https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23399287/future-perfect-50-change-agents . 11 May 2023 . 2023-05-11 . . en.

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