This book focuses on the causes of starvation in general and famines in particular. The traditional analysis of famines is shown to be fundamentally defective, and the author develops an alternative analysis.

This book brings together and develops some of the economic, social and ethical ideas explored since 1974. It examines the claims of equality in social arrangements, stressing that we should be concerned with peoples' capabilities rather than either their resources or their welfare. Sen also looks at some types of inequality that have been less systematically studied than those of class or wealth.