The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded Monday to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, a trio of economists working at U.S. universities, for research on prosperity gaps between countries — specifically how European colonization led to some nations being rich while others are poor.
The laureates’ research found that societies with a poor rule of law, in addition to institutions that exploit the population, do not generate growth or change for the better, according to the Nobel committee.
“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” Jakob Svensson, chair of the committee for the economics prize, wrote in a statement.
Acemoglu is an expert in macroeconomics and political economy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Johnson heads the global economics and management group at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Robinson is a professor of global conflict studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
In an interview with The Washington Post shortly after the prize was announced, Johnson said he was “surprised and delighted.”
