The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024 was awarded jointly to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson "for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity".
The richest 20 per cent of the world’s countries are now around 30 times richer than the poorest 20 per cent. Moreover, the income gap between the richest and poorest countries is persistent; although the poorest countries have become richer, they are not catching up with the most prosperous. Why? This year’s laureates have found new and convincing evidence for one explanation for this persistent gap – differences in a society’s institutions.
Providing evidence for this is no easy task. A correlation between the institutions in a society and its prosperity does not necessarily mean that one is the cause of the other. Rich countries differ from poor ones in many ways – not just in their institutions – so there could be other reasons for both their prosperity and their types of institutions. Perhaps prosperity affects a society’s institutions, rather than vice-versa. To arrive at their answer, the laureates used an innovative empirical approach.
Explore: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2024/popular-information/