3 US-based academics awarded the Nobel prize in economics for their work on wealth inequality

• Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson won the Nobel prize in economics.
• The Nobel committee said their work helped demonstrate how institutions affect wealth inequality.
• The three winners, who are based in the US, will divide the $1.1 million prize money equally.

Three economists at US universities have been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their work on how institutions affect wealth inequality.

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson will share the $1.1 million prize money, the Nobel committee said.

The prize, known in its entirety as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is widely considered the most prestigious prize in the field.

"Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time's greatest challenges," said Jakob Svensson, the chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences. "The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this."

The committee said the three economists had provided an explanation for why some countries are rich and others are poor.

Their research has looked at the institutions formed in nations under European colonization. They found that where inclusive political and economic systems were created, long-term benefits and more prosperous populations persist.

Conversely, they found, extractive institutions provided short-term gains for the people in power. "As long as the political system guarantees they will remain in control, no one will trust their promises of future economic reforms," a Nobel press release describing their research said.

The committee said Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson developed theoretical tools that could help explain why these differences in institutions persist and how institutions can change.

Jan Teorell, a member of the committee, said the laureates showed empirically and theoretically that inclusive institutions are better for long-term growth and prosperity.

Acemoglu and Johnson are professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while Robinson is the director of the University of Chicago's Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts.

Johnson was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from March 2007 to August 2008.

The winners have written books based on their research. In 2012, Acemoglu and Robinson published "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty," an argument for how and why democracies shape prosperity.

In 2023, Acemoglu and Johnson published "Power and Progress," a look at whether digital technologies and AI would make life better for people. Once a techno-optimist, Acemoglu has become more cautious about the effects of artificial intelligence, especially if decision-making powers remain in the hands of tech leaders.

Acemoglu recently argued that the promise of massive efficiencies and productivity gains unlocked via AI may be overhyped. He predicted that only 5% of jobs would be taken over or heavily assisted by AI technologies over the next decade.

"You're not going to get an economic revolution out of that 5%," Acemoglu said.