THE acclaimed economist, once described as ‘the godfather of inequality research’, and former warden of Nuffield College, Sir Tony Atkinson, has died, aged 72.

Professor Atkinson pioneered research on the distribution of income and wealth and the historical study of inequality, writing more than 40 books during his life.

As chairman of the World Bank’s Commission on Global Poverty, he recently completed a report supporting the ending of extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity.

His research, focusing on social justice, examined how the wealthy disproportionately influence public policy and he was an advocate of a basic income.

He was knighted in 2001 for services to economics.

Anthony Barnes Atkinson was born in Caerleon in South Wales on September 4, 1944.

He went to boarding school at Cranbrook School in Kent before getting into Churchill College, Cambridge, and graduating in 1966.

Through the 1970s and 80s he taught as a professor at the University of Essex, University College, London and London School Economics.

In 1994, he moved to Nuffield College as warden until 2005, and was a fellow there and at Oxford Martin School until his death on January 1.

He also served on the UK’s Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth, the Pension Law Review Committee, and the Commission on Social Justice.

He led the Atkinson Review of Measurement of Government Output and Productivity, which reported in 2000, and was a member of the Conseil d’Analyse Economique advising the French Prime Minister, and of the European Statistics Governance Advisory Board.

He is survived by his wife, Judith Mandeville; three children, Richard, Sarah and Charles; and eight grandchildren.