A life in context
The person behind the prize
Acemoglu earned his doctorate at the London School of Economics and became a professor at MIT. He studies the relationship between economic incentives and political power. His collaborations with Simon Johnson and James Robinson use history and economic theory to investigate persistent differences in prosperity.
The contribution
He helped develop evidence and models explaining how institutions shape investment and opportunity, and why groups that benefit from existing rules may resist changes that could improve general prosperity.
The idea in plain language
Institutions are the rules and organisations that shape social life: courts, property rights, political representation and limits on power. They influence whether people can invest, cooperate and expect to keep the results of their work.
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