The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their research on differences in prosperity between nations

The latest Nobel prize, the economics prize closed the 2024 season of the famous awards on Monday October 14. He singled out three researchers, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, for their research into understanding differences in prosperity between nations.

The researchers, all three working in the United States, were distinguished “for their studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity”explained the jury in its reasoning.

Turkish-American Daron Acemoglu is the author of several bestsellers including Why Nations Fail : The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (translated into French by Prosperity, power and poverty: Why some countries do better than others). Mr. Acemoglu is known for his “work on how institutions, over the long term, facilitate or hinder economic growth”.

This trio succeeds the American Claudia Goldin, awarded in 2023 for her work on the evolution of the place of women in the job market and their income.

The only one not to have been provided for in Alfred Nobel’s will, the economics prize was created by the Swedish Central Bank “in memory” of the inventor. It was added in 1969 to the five traditional awards (medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace), earning him the nickname of “false Nobel” from his detractors.

It closes a 2024 season which highlighted artificial intelligence for the physics and chemistry prizes and the Japanese group Nihon Hidankyo, committed against nuclear weapons, for peace.

In literature, the South Korean Han Kang – the only woman of the 2024 vintage – was rewarded while the medicine prize distinguished the Americans Ambros and Ruvkun for their work on gene regulation. The winners receive a check for 11 million crowns (920,000 euros), to be shared in the event of multiple winners.