Trio of professors win Nobel economics prize for work on post-colonial wealth

Paco Dennis

SF VIP
Location
Mid-Missouri
Finally, after 400 years of this crap. :)

British-born Simon Johnson and James A Robinson and Turkish-American Daron Acemoğlu share £810,000 prize

Kalyeena Makortoff
Mon 14 Oct 2024 06.27 EDT
Share


Three US-based professors, including two UK-born academics, have been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in economics, for showing how the political and economic systems introduced by colonisers can determine whether a country is rich or poor today.
The explanation put forward by Turkish-American Daron Acemoğlu, Sheffield-born Simon Johnson and Briton James A Robinson, suggests that inclusive institutions set up for the long-term benefit of European migrants ended up resulting in more prosperous societies in the long term.

However, they found that in countries where the aim was to exploit the Indigenous population and extract resources for the colonisers’ benefit, the impact has been detrimental, and resulted in far poorer societies, leaving some countries trapped in low economic growth cycles.
“The laureates demonstrated that this led to a reversal of fortune. The places that were, relatively speaking, the richest at their time of colonisation are now among the poorest,” the Nobel prize announcement said.
“This is an important reason for why former colonies that were once rich are now poor, and vice versa,” it added.
However, the academics said the effect can be reversed if a country can “break free of its inherited institutions to establish democracy and the rule of law. In the long run, these changes also lead to reduced poverty.”
The trio of academics will share the award, which comes with an 11m kroner (£810,000) cash prize and a gold medal. Established in the 1960s, several decades after the original Nobel prizes, it is technically known as the Sveriges Riksbank prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel.
“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges,” Jakob Svensson, chair of the committee for the prize in economic sciences, said. “The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this.”
Acemoğlu, 57, and Johnson, 61, are both professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, in the US. Together, they co-authored a book last year, called Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity.


Trio of professors win Nobel economics prize for work on post-colonial wealth
 

The only exception to their colonization theory is the U.S., which was once made up of British colonies
Could you explain what you mean by exception? Thanks.
You're posting an article from The Guardian, which is extremely left-wing. The actual Nobel Prize statement said the following: "This year’s laureates in the economic sciences – Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson – have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity. Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why." The emphasis is on the rule of law and inclusive institutions, not colonialism. It's true, however, that former colonies have not done well, with the exceptions of the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
 
But I can't believe it took 3 PhDs to prove that. I mean, I believe it, it's just so ...disappointing. And baffling.

I learned about the economical and developmental impacts of colonization in 5th grade.
 
I guess the intent of this thread is as some kind of fifth columnist's "Why you should hate your country and yourself, like I do" screed.

These seem popular here, with international ticks happy to jump onto the foreign agent's shoulders and cheer them on.


The U.S. is an exception because it threw off the yoke of British rule and the pre-corporate mercantile owner class. As a result it didn't end poor like other colonies and took responsibility for bailing much of the world out in WW I, WW II, and then since under Bretton Woods. Hopefully someday we can wean the Europeans off our teat without them falling into another World War.
 

Back
Top