CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (MIT News) — MIT economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson PhD ‘89, whose work has illuminated the relationship between political systems and economic growth, were named winners of the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel on Monday, October 14.
Political scientist James Robinson of the University of Chicago, with whom they have worked closely, also shares the award.
“Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better,” the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences stated in the Nobel citation. “The laureates’ research helps us understand why.”
The long-term research collaboration between Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson, which extends back for more than two decades, has empirically demonstrated that democracies, which hold to the rule of law and provide individual rights, have spurred greater economic activity over the last 500 years.
“I am just amazed and absolutely delighted,” Acemoglu told MIT News this morning, about receiving the Nobel Prize. Separately, Johnson told MIT News he was “surprised and delighted” by the announcement.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth congratulated both professors at an Institute press conference this morning, saying that Acemoglu and Johnson “reflect a kind of MIT ideal” in terms of the excellence and rigor of their work and their commitment to collaboration. Their research, Kornbluth added, represents “a very MIT interest in making a positive impact in the real world.”