James A. Robinson shares 2024 Nobel Prize for research on global inequality

Prof. James A. Robinson of the University of Chicago has been awarded the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Robinson, the Reverend Dr. Richard L. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies and University Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy and the Department of Political Science, on Oct. 14 for his research on “how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” He shared this year’s prize with Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of MIT.

The Nobel Prize-winning work of Robinson, Acemoglu and Johnson aims to trace the historical roots of an age-old question: Why are some countries poorer and others more prosperous? And why do these inequalities persist? 

“James Robinson’s scholarship lays bare how much inclusive institutions matter to prosperity in a society,” said UChicago President Paul Alivisatos. “His work is in a deep tradition of University of Chicago scholarship that helps us to see the world anew and to shape it to the betterment of humankind.”

Robinson was sleeping, with his phone off, when the Nobel committee attempted to reach him in the early hours of Oct. 14. His wife Maria Angélica Bautista, a senior research associate at the Harris School of Public Policy, received a text from a friend and quickly woke him up. 

“It’s a little bit emotional. I’m super happy obviously, but very proud and honored,” Robinson said. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”

‘A true intellectual’

At a UChicago news conference later that afternoon, Robinson was called “a true intellectual,” whose work has transformed numerous fields. An economist and political scientist, Robinson has conducted influential research on the relationships between political power, institutions and prosperity. Robinson is the institute director of UChicago’s Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. He teaches and conducts fieldwork around the world, including in Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and has authored numerous best-selling books. 

“It’s hard to think of a major question in politics or policy for which Jim’s work is not kind of the first stopping point for anybody seeking a deeper understanding or answer,” said Prof. Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, dean of the Harris School of Public Policy. “His research on institutions and the political determinants of societal thriving set the agenda for a generation of scholars who are seeking to understand how to create peace and prosperity where there was conflict and poverty.”

Today, the richest nations in the world are around 30 times richer than the poorest nations. Scholars have long pondered why this disparity exists—and why it persists. 

“Economists understand what generates prosperity,” Robinson said in 2019 on the Big Brains podcast, “and so to me I’ve never been interested so much in rich countries … to me, the puzzle has always been about poor countries and about why poor countries can’t take advantage of all this stuff which is in economics textbooks.”

Historically, scholars have attributed this entrenched inequality to factors like geography, weather or culture. However Robinson, Acemoglu and Johnson argue that economic and political institutions—how they are organized and affect the citizens of a society—cause these extreme income gaps between nations.

To understand the tricky question of causality, the scholars traced swaths of history. They specifically looked at European colonization of large parts of the world, which began around the 16th century. As colonizers settled around the globe, they also set up new institutions that governed opportunities and wealth—access to education and land ownership. The differences between how these institutions operate, whether they are extractive or inclusive, have huge implications for the long-term prosperity of a nation.

“We were able to use a lot of techniques from labor economics, and other parts of economics, and import them into studying these issues of comparative development,” Robinson said. “It turned out to be very powerful.”

Robinson is widely recognized as the co-author of the best-selling Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012), along with Acemoglu. Translated into 49 languages since its publication, the book offers evidence that nations which create incentives and allow everyone to participate in economic opportunities tend to thrive. 

He has also written and co-authored numerous books and articles, including the acclaimed Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (2005) and The Narrow Corridor: States, Society and the Fate of Liberty (2019, also with Acemoglu).

‘I just hope we can carry on’

While Robinson hopes his decades of research can help reduce global inequality, he understands that economists don’t have a silver bullet to solving the problem.

“I think maybe ideas are important in terms of giving people levers, or giving people ways to think about the problems in their society,” he said.

Though Robinson admits it’s probably naive to think nothing will change after receiving a Nobel Prize, which he described as a “rather surreal, out-of-body experience,” he looks forward to continuing his ongoing research—including two book projects and future collaborations with his fellow Nobel laureates. 

“We’ve been working together for 30 years, more or less. We’re still good friends, still talking about ideas nonstop. I don’t think that’s going to change,” Robinson said. “It’s a great recognition, and I just hope we can carry on doing the same thing. It’s what we’re good at; it’s what we like.”

In addition to Robinson, seven current UChicago faculty members are Nobel laureates in economics: Prof. Douglas Diamond (who won in 2022), Prof. Michael Kremer (2019), Prof. Richard Thaler (2017), Profs. Eugene Fama and Lars Hansen (2013), Prof. Roger Myerson (2007) and Prof. James Heckman (2000).