The Nobel Prize in Economics, which closes the 2024 season, rewarded this Monday the American-Turkish Daron Acemoglu and the British-Americans Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for their research on understanding differences in prosperity between nations.
The researchers, all three working in the United States, were distinguished “for their studies on how institutions are formed and affect prosperity”, explained the jury in its conclusions.
“One of the greatest challenges of our time”
“Reducing the huge income differences between countries is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The winners have shown the importance of institutions in achieving this,” said Jakob Svensson, chairman of the economics prize committee, quoted in a press release. “This year’s winners have pioneered new approaches, both empirical and theoretical, that have significantly advanced our understanding of global inequality,” Jakob Svensson told the press.
By examining the different political and economic systems introduced by European colonizers, the three economists were able to highlight a link between institutions and prosperity, the committee said in its press release.
“It’s a real shock and extraordinary news”
Daron Acemoglu, 57, is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as is Simon Johnson, 61. James Robinson, 64, is a professor at the University of Chicago.
“This is a real shock and extraordinary news. Thank you,” responded Daron Acemoglu, questioned by the Nobel committee. He 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).
The latest Nobel prize, the economics prize closes the 2024 season of famous awards. In 2023, the American Claudia Goldin was awarded an award for her work on the evolution of women’s place in the job market and their income.
The last Nobel of the season
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 Kan – the only woman of the 2024 vintage – was rewarded while the medicine prize distinguished the Americans Ambros and Ruvkun for their work in gene regulation.
The winners receive a check for 11 million crowns (920,000 euros), to be shared in the event of multiple winners.
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