"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson "for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity," the Nobel Prize Committee said on X.
In their research, this year's Nobel Prize winners demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country's prosperity, showing how countries with poor rule of law and lack of properly functioning societal institutions fail to generate economic growth, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a press release.
Based on the assessment of wealth of former European colonies, the researchers were able to prove that creating stable and inclusive societal institutions resulted in more prosperous nations. A the same time, exploiting the indigenous population and mining natural resources solely for colonizers' benefit dampened economic growth, which is still evident decades after former colonies gained independence.