Acemoglu, who was born in Istanbul, and Johnson, who was born in the U.K., are professors of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Robinson is a professor of eco

The three U.S.-based academics studied why some countries are rich and others poor and have documented that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper.

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson have won the 2024 Nobel economics prize “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity”, says the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.