The Unassuming Economist

From Nishtha Anushree at Swarajya:

“The Nobel Prize 2024 in Economic Sciences has been awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has chosen the awardees of the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for demonstrating the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity.

The laureates’ model for explaining the circumstances under which political institutions are formed and changed has three components. The first is a conflict over how resources are allocated and who holds decision-making power in a society (the elite or the masses).

The second is that the masses sometimes have the opportunity to exercise power by mobilising and threatening the ruling elite; power in a society is thus more than the power to make decisions.

The third is the commitment problem, which means that the only alternative is for the elite to hand over decision-making power to the populace.

“The introduction of inclusive institutions would create long-term benefits for everyone, but extractive institutions provide short-term gains for the people in power,” the laureates say.

The laureates have also developed an innovative theoretical framework that explains why some societies become stuck in a trap with what the laureates call extractive institutions, and why escaping from this trap is so difficult.

They have added a new dimension to previous explanations for the current differences in the wealth of countries around the globe. One of these relates to geography and climate.

Their insights regarding how institutions influence prosperity show that work to support democracy and inclusive institutions is an important way forward in the promotion of economic development.”