The MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative is thrilled to congratulate Faculty Co-Directors Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson on receiving the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024!

Acemoglu, Johnson, and James A. Robinson (University of Chicago) received the award “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” Their research sheds light on the important role that societal institutions play in a country’s prosperity, and why democratic societies that provide individual rights and adhere to the rule of law have experienced greater economic growth.

Daron Acemoglu is the author of six books, including, with James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: Power, Prosperity, and Poverty and The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and The Fate of Liberty, and, with Simon Johnson, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. He is the author of over 150 refereed papers on topics including political economy, economic development, economic growth, technological change, inequality, labor economics, the economics of networks.

Simon Johnson’s research has focused on long-term economic development, corporate finance, political economy, and public health. He is the author of books including, with Daron Acemoglu, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity; with Jon Gruber, Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream; and with James Kwak, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown and White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters for You. He was formerly the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund in 2007-8.