With the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Economics, the Nobel Award ceremonies for this year have concluded. This year's prize has been awarded to James A. Robinson, Simon Johnson, and Daron Acemoglu for their research on the differences in wealth among various countries.
The Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated that the three economists "have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country's prosperity."
The Trio Won Nobel Prize in Economics 2024 Because...
The Nobel Prize stated in a post on X that, “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).”
According to the X post, “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.”
Why is Nobel Award in Economics not a Nobel Award?
The official name of the Nobel Award in Economics is the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was created in 1968 by the central bank as a tribute to Nobel, the Swedish chemist and industrialist of the 19th century who also founded the five Nobel Prizes and produced dynamite.
Some purists of the Nobel Prize believe that the Economics Prize is not a true Nobel Award since it was not mentioned in Alfred Nobel's will. However, it is always presented alongside the other prizes on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
All Nobel Prizes 2024
Check the table below to know the names of the winners of the Nobel Award 2024 along with the contribution they made:
| Category | Laureate(s) | Country | Achievement |
| Physics | John J. Hopfield & Geoffrey E. Hinton | United States | Foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks |
| Chemistry | David Baker | United States | Computational protein design |
| Chemistry | Demis Hassabis & John M. Jumper | United Kingdom & United States | Protein structure prediction |
| Physiology or Medicine | Victor Ambros & Gary Ruvkun | United States | Discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation |
| Literature | Han Kang | South Korea | Intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life |
| Peace | Nihon Hidankyo | Japan | Efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again |
| Economics | Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, & James A. Robinson | United States, United Kingdom, & United States | Studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity |
The Nobel Prizes come with a one million dollar lump amount, a diploma, and a gold medal. The awards will be presented at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, which marks the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.
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