Coming down from the Ivory tower - by Stefanie Roost

Bringing research beyond academia

I believe I speak for many economists, especially those in political economics when I say that it is a pleasure to see Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson (finally!) awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Their contributions have shed light on why different nations experience varying levels of prosperity, highlighting the importance of institutions and the historical ways these were formed.

Their work continuously advances academic knowledge in various fields of Economics, ranging from their contribution to institutional economics to research on technical change and labour dynamics. But beyond that, the three brilliant researchers are examples of academics who broke with the walls of academia and shared their insights with a broader audience. Their popular book, "Why Nations Fail", illustrates how complex scholarly findings can be communicated in an accessible way without relying on jargon.

A source of inspiration despite the criticism

Their body of work emphasizes the complex socio-political dynamics behind economic phenomena. A key focus of their research is the role of inequalities and how elites in power decide over the use of resources and shape economic outcomes. To examine these dynamics, they made use of creative choice of data – centuries-old historical information, such as the mortality of colonial settlers, to explain initial institutions – which encouraged many others to explore previously overlooked historical and anthropological data in their work. In summary, the combination of their methodological rigour, clever use of data, and investigation of important questions beyond experiences in the Global North earned them this prestigious award. Not least important, their work continuously inspires many scholars worldwide.

Of course, work of such magnitude is also subject to criticism, and theirs is no exception. Yet, it still serves as a benchmark that goes beyond their many-(many-)thousand citations and was crucial to intensifying fruitful dialogues between Economics and other Social Sciences. While this is not the first Nobel Prize awarded to researchers in political economy and institutional economics, it is undoubtedly a very important one.