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The
Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to Daron
Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for research into
differences in prosperity between nations.
The three economists “have demonstrated the importance of
societal institutions for a country’s prosperity,” the Nobel
committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the
announcement in Stockholm.
“Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit
the population do not generate growth or change for the better.
The laureates’ research helps us understand why,” it added.
Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Robinson conducts his research at the University
of Chicago.
“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
Prize in Economic Sciences, said.
He said their research has provided "a much deeper understanding
of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.”
Reached by the academy in Athens, Greece, where he is due to
speak at a conference, Acemoglu said he was surprised and
shocked by the award.
“You never expect something like this," he said.
The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden
Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The
central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the
19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented
dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.
Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is
technically not a Nobel Prize, it is always presented together
with the others on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in
1896.
Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics,
chemistry, literature and peace.
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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.
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