This year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics have been announced. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for their work on “how institutions are formed and how they affect well-being.”
In the statement made by the committee, “This year’s laureates in economic sciences have helped us understand the differences in welfare between nations. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson have demonstrated the importance of social institutions for the prosperity of a country. There is no growth in societies where the rule of law is weak and there are institutions that exploit the people.” “Change for the better does not occur in the world, and the research of the awardees helps us understand why.”
Daron Acemoğlu, who was born in Istanbul in 1967 and studied economics at York University and London School of Economics in England after graduating from Galatasaray High School, is considered one of the most important economists in the world. Daron Acemoğlu’s father, Kevork Acemoğlu, who passed away in 1988, was one of Turkey’s well-known commercial law experts. Her mother, İrma Acemoğlu, one of the former principals of Kadıköy Aramyan Uncuyan School, who passed away in 1991, was also known as a poet and writer.
Daron Acemoğlu, one of the 10 most quoted economists in the world, was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, which was seen as the ‘forerunner of the Nobel Prize in Economics’, in 2005.
Acemoglu currently serves as a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Acemoğlu, who ranked 12th among the world’s most important 1000 economists in a research commissioned by the European Economic Organization in 2001, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is known as the highest level institution where successful politicians, artists and scientists are accepted, in 2007.
Acemoglu’s career
His doctoral thesis, Essays in Microfoundations of Macroeconomics: Contracts and Economic Performance, received remarkable praise from his examiners.
James Malcomson, who is now an emeritus professor of economics at the University of Oxford, noted that even the weakest chapters of his thesis were more than sufficient to earn him a PhD.
Acemoglu’s rapid academic progress led economist Arnold Kling to describe him as a “wunderkind,” earning his doctorate at the age of just 25.
Acemoglu’s contributions to understanding how political and economic institutions influence the prosperity of nations have earned him recognition as one of the most influential economists of his time.
He has been particularly interested in how institutional frameworks – whether inclusive or extractive – can drive economic outcomes, especially in developing nations.
Acemoglu is well-known for his collaboration with political scientist James A. Robinson.
They co-authored Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (2006), a book that analyzes how political institutions shape whether a country moves towards democracy or authoritarianism.
Their next collaboration, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012), brought their work into the global spotlight.
This book argues that it is not geography or culture that determines a nation’s economic success, but rather the quality of its institutions.
Countries with inclusive institutions – where citizens have a say in governance and the rule of law is respected – tend to thrive.
In contrast, those with extractive institutions, which serve a small elite at the expense of the broader population, struggle economically.
Their research not only shifted how economists think about development but also provided new insights for policymakers trying to reform struggling economies.
Why Nations Fail has been translated into several languages and remains influential in both academic and policy circles.
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