Nobel Prize in Economics goes to global inequality researcher

Three U.S.-based scientists won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday for their research into why global inequality persists, particularly in countries marked by corruption and dictatorship.

Simon Johnson and James Robinson, both British-Americans, and Turkish-American Daron Acemoglu were praised for their work on “how institutions are formed and influence wealth,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

“Reducing the enormous income differences between countries is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The winners have shown how important social institutions are in achieving this goal,” said Jakob Svensson, Chairman of the Economics Prize Committee.

“They have identified the historical roots of the weak institutional environment that characterizes many low-income countries today,” he told a news conference. The award came a day after a World Bank report showed that the world's 26 poorest countries – home to 40% of the most poverty-stricken people – are more indebted than at any time since 2006, a significant turnaround in the struggle against poverty.

The prestigious prize, officially known as the Swedish Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the last prize to be awarded this year and is worth 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million).

Acemoglu told the Nobel press conference that data collected by pro-democracy groups showed that public institutions and the rule of law were being weakened in many parts of the world.

“I think this is a time when democracies are going through a difficult period,” Acemoglu said. “And in some ways it is crucial that they reclaim the high priority of better and cleaner governance and deliver the promise of democracy, so to speak, to a wide range of people.”

Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Robinson is at the University of Chicago.

Technology through the ages

Acemoglu and Johnson recently collaborated on a book Survey Technology Through the Ages that showed some technological advances were better at creating jobs and spreading wealth than others. The Economics Prize is not one of the original prizes for science, literature and peace created in the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and first awarded in 1901, but a later addition created and funded by the Swedish Central Bank in 1968 .

Previous winners include a number of influential thinkers such as Milton Friedman, John Nash – played by actor Russell Crowe in the 2001 film “A Beautiful Mind” – and, more recently, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Research into inequality has featured heavily in recent awards. Last year, Harvard economic historian Claudia Goldin won the prize for her work examining the causes of wage and labor market inequality between men and women.

In 2019, economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer won the prize for their work on poverty reduction.

The economics prize has been dominated by U.S. academics since its inception, while U.S.-based researchers also tend to make up a large share of winners in the scientific fields for which 2024 winners were announced last week.

This series of awards began with US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize on Monday and ended with Japan's Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki advocating for the abolition of used nuclear weapons, received the Peace Prize on Friday.