Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson receive the Nobel economics prize for 2024.

• On Monday, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson received the Nobel prize in economic sciences for their research on international wealth disparities.
• The book "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" was written by Acemoglu and Robinson in 2012.
• The roughly $1 million cash prize from Sweden's central bank will be divided among the victors.

On Monday, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson received the Nobel prize in economic sciences for their research on international wealth disparities.

The Nobel committee highlighted the significance of societal institutions in promoting a country's prosperity, stating that societies with weak rule of law and institutions that exploit their population do not experience growth or improvement.

Acemoglu and Johnson are MIT professors, while Robinson is the director of the University of Chicago's Pearson Institute and specializes in sub-Saharan African and Latin American economies.

The book "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty," written by Acemoglu and Robinson in 2012, examines the causes of inequality and why certain nations are able to achieve wealth and influence.

The wealth gap between the richest and poorest countries has widened, with the wealthiest nations now being 30 times richer than the poorest, according to the Nobel committee.

The committee stated that the laureates played a crucial role in explaining the political and economic systems introduced by colonizing countries from the sixteenth century onwards, which contributed to the current disparity. Additionally, the committee pointed out that the places that were the wealthiest at the time of colonization are now among the poorest.

During a press conference, Jakob Svensson, director and professor of economics at Stockholm University's Institute for International Economic Studies, stated that they have "pioneered new approaches, both empirical and theoretical, that have significantly enhanced our understanding of global inequality."

The issue of why the income disparities between poor and wealthy countries remain so persistent is a pressing concern in the field of social sciences.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel winners will receive 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.058 million) from the Swedish central bank.

As in 2022, when the reward was divided equally among U.S.-based economists Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond, and Philip Dybvig for research on banks and financial crises, the prize money will be shared equally among the winners.

In 2023, Claudia Goldin, an economist and historian, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on women's earnings and labor market outcomes.

In 2024, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors, for their efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world.

The other Nobel Prizes, initially given in 1901, encompass categories in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine or Physiology, and Literature.

In 1968, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences established the economic sciences prize to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Swedish central bank. The first recipient was awarded the prize in 1969. The winner is recognized for their work of "outstanding importance."