STOCKHOLM (AP) – The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded Monday to three economists whose research into why some countries are rich and others poor shows that freer and more open societies are more likely to prosper. was awarded.
The Nobel Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement in Stockholm that economists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson have “demonstrated the importance of social institutions to the prosperity of nations. ” he said.
Mr. Acemoglu and Mr. Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago Robinson School.
Jacob Svensson, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said their research “gives us a deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail and succeed.”
Turkish-born Acemoglu, 57, said he was surprised by the award when he arrived at the academy where he was scheduled to speak at a conference in Athens, Greece.
“You would never expect something like this,” he said.
Acemoglu said the research recognized with the award emphasizes the value of democratic institutions.
“I think, broadly speaking, the work we’ve done is favorable to democracy,” he said in a telephone conversation with the Nobel committee and reporters in Stockholm.
However, “democracy is not a panacea. Democracy is very difficult to introduce. Introducing elections can sometimes lead to conflicts.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Robinson, 64, said he doubted China could maintain economic prosperity as long as it maintained a repressive political system.
“There are many examples in the history of the world of societies like this that have done well for 40, 50 years,” Robinson said by phone. “What you see is that it’s simply not sustainable. ) The Soviet Union did well for 50 or 60 years. ‘
Robinson said many societies have successfully transitioned to what he, Acemoglu and Johnson call “inclusive societies.”
“Look at the United States. This is a country of slavery and privilege, where women were not allowed to participate in the economy or vote,” Robinson said.
He added: “All the countries that are relatively inclusive and open today have made that transition. We’re seeing it in the modern world in South Korea, Taiwan and Mauritius.”
Acemoglu and Robinson wrote the 2012 bestseller “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” arguing that man-made problems are what keep countries poor.
In their work, the winners looked to the city of Nogales, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, for example.
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Despite sharing the same geography, climate, and common culture, life on both sides of the border is very different. In Nogales, Arizona, to the north, residents are relatively wealthy and live long lives. Most children graduate from high school. To the south, in Nogales, Mexico’s Sonora state, the population is much poorer and organized crime and corruption are rampant.
The difference, economists say, is the U.S. system that protects property rights and gives people a say in their government.
Mr. Acemoglu on Monday expressed concern that democratic institutions in the United States and Europe were losing support from the public.
“Support for democracy is at an all-time low, especially in the United States, but also in Greece, the United Kingdom and France,” Acemoglu said on the sidelines of a conference outside Athens.
“I think it symbolizes how disappointed people are with democracy,” he says. “They think democracy is not delivering on its promise.”
Robinson agreed. “This is clearly an attack on the comprehensive institutions of this country,” he said. “We had a presidential candidate who denied he lost the last election. So President (Donald) Trump rejected the people’s democratic governance. … Of course I’m concerned. I’m a concerned citizen. ”
Johnson told The Associated Press that economic pressures are alienating many Americans.
“Many people who were once part of the middle class have been hit very hard by a combination of globalization, automation, the decline of trade unions and broader changes in corporate philosophy,” Johnson said. “So instead of being a resource to be exploited, workers have become a cost to be minimized, as they were in the 19th and early 20th centuries…Now that’s putting pressure on the middle class.”
“As a nation, we have failed in recent decades to do what we used to be very good at: shared prosperity,” Johnson said.
Mr Johnson said one of the keys to the future was how society managed new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
“AI can go in either direction,” he said. “AI can go in either direction. AI can make people better educated and more capable, give them more advanced skills, help them do more tasks, and make them more capable. You can get paid.” Or we could see a new wave of automation that pushes the midstream remnants to the bottom. Then you won’t like the political outcome. ”
In their research, economists studied the systems that European powers such as Britain and Spain introduced when they colonized large parts of the world starting in the 1600s. They brought different policies to different places, giving later researchers “natural experiments” for analysis.
Sparsely populated colonies attracted more settlers because they offered less resistance to foreign rule. In those places, colonial governments tended to establish more inclusive economic institutions that “encouraged settlers to work hard and invest in their new homelands.” As a result, this led to demands for a political right to share in the profits,” the Nobel Committee said.
The report emphasized that in densely populated places that attracted fewer settlers, colonial regimes restricted political rights and “served the interests of local elites at the expense of the broader population.” He said that he had established a system in place.
“Paradoxically, this means that the relatively most prosperous region of the world that was colonized some 500 years ago is now a relatively poor region,” the report said. He added that India’s industrial production exceeded that of the American colonies in the 18th century.
The Prize in Economics is officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank was established in 1968 as a monument to Nobel, the 19th century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and won five Nobel Prizes.
Although Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is not technically a Nobel Prize, it is always awarded, along with other prizes, on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. .
Last week, Nobel Prizes were announced in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace.
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Mr. Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Mr. Wiseman from Washington. Associated Press writers David Keaton in Berlin and Elena Bekatoros in Athens contributed to this report.
