breaking news
The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences goes to the three researchers Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson. They look at how state institutions are created and how they affect a country’s prosperity.
The Royal Swedish Academy is awarding this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences to the research trio Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson. The US-Turkish economist and the two US-British researchers – all of whom work in the USA – will be honored for their work on the wealth gap between nations, the Nobel Committee announced in Stockholm.
Her research therefore focuses on how institutions are formed and what influence they have on prosperity.
Historically oriented research
Societies with a weak rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not bring growth or change for the better, the academy said in its statement. The award winners’ research helps to understand why this is the case and what exact mechanisms lie behind it.
Their research is primarily historically oriented: the prize winners have shown that one explanation for the differences in prosperity between countries lies in the social institutions that were introduced during colonization. Inclusive institutions were often introduced in countries that were poor at the time of colonization. Over time, this led to greater prosperity for the entire population. This is a big reason why former colonies that were once rich are now poor and vice versa.
Not a “real” Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences does not go back to the will of the dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), but has been established by the Swedish central bank in Nobel’s memory since the late 1960s.
Nevertheless, the Nobel Prize in Economics, as well as the other prizes, will be ceremoniously presented on the anniversary of Nobel’s death on December 10th. It also comes with the same prize money as the other awards – this year that is eleven million Swedish crowns (around 970,000 euros) per category.
The Nobel Prize winners in the prize categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were announced last week.