Trio receives Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm announced on Monday that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Science is going to Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to James Robinson from the University of Chicago “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.”

The committee stated that Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson’s research showed why “in societies with legal uncertainty and institutions that exploit the population, no growth or change for the better is created.” One explanation for the differences in prosperity between countries that this year’s award winners offered was the type of social institutions introduced when the country was colonized.

“Reducing the large income differences between countries is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The prize winners have shown how important social institutions are in achieving this,” chairman of the Economic Prize Committee Jakob Svensson stated.