Why Nobelists Fail

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, have been heralded as developers of major new insights in the field of institutional economics, helping to explain the basis of economic prosperity in the long run, and offering an understanding of the role of colonialism and imperialism in the making of the modern world. This essay argues that their approach is excessively narrow, based as it is on an idea of property rights as playing a talismanic role in economic growth. Other factors, including the privileged relationship between settlers and their countries of origin, can both explain the divergence between settler colonies and others and cohere with the historical facts. Moreover, there is good reason to believe that property rights, if rigidly conceived, act as a fetter on growth. A pragmatic approach to property rights, and not property-rights absolutism, conduces to long-run growth and development

Business · Economics · Law and economics · Political science · Philosophy and History of Science

• History and Institutions Did Not Need a Nobel Prize to be ‘Cool’ Again. Heterodox Economists Had Already Accomplished That

  David A Zalewski•Review of Political Economy•2026

  Incluir item

• Oligarchy

  Open Access•Jeffrey A Winters•Oligarchy•2011

  Incluir item

• Miti and the Japanese Miracle

  Chalmers Johnson, Chalmers A Johnson•MITI and the Japanese Miracle•1982

  Incluir item

• John Locke and America

  Barbara Arneil•John Locke and America•1996

  Incluir item

• Institutions, Human Capital, and Development

  Daron Acemoglu, Francisco Gallego et al.•Annual Review of Economics•2014

  Incluir item

• Chinese Township-Village Enterprises as Vaguely Defined Cooperatives

  Open Access•Martin L Weitzman, Chenggang Xu•Journal of Comparative Economics•1994

  Incluir item

• Why Nations Fail

  Daron Acemoglu, James A Robinson•Asean Economic Bulletin•2012

  Incluir item

• The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development

  Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson et al.•American Economic Review•2001

  Incluir item

• Reversal of Fortune

  Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson et al.•The Quarterly Journal of Economics•2002

  Incluir item

• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

  Adam C Smith, Adam Smith et al.•Glasgow Edition of the Works and…•1776

  Incluir item

• Cannibal Capitalism

  Nancy Fraser•Cannibal Capitalism•2023

  Incluir item

• Replenishing the Earth

  James Belich•Replenishing the earth•2009

  Incluir item

• Science as Salvation

  Frank Palmer, Mary Midgley•The Philosophical Quarterly•1993

  Incluir item

• The State in Post-Colonial Societies

  Hamza Alavi•New left review•1972

  Incluir item

• British Investment in American Railways, 1834-1898

  Stuart Bruchey, Stuart W Bruchey et al.•The Journal of Southern History•1971

  Incluir item

• Ecological Imperialism

  William Cronon, Alfred W Crosby•Journal of American History•1987

  Incluir item

• Scientism and the Study of Society. Part II

  F A V Hayek, F A Von Hayek•Economica•1944

  Incluir item

• Governing the Market

  Robert Hunter Wade, Robert Wade•Governing the Market•1990

  Incluir item

• Do Institutions Cause Growth

  Open Access•Edward L Glaeser, Rafael La Porta et al.•Journal of Economic Growth•2004

  Incluir item

• The Political Economy of Underdevelopment

  John Harris, John Harriss et al.•Geographical Journal•1983

  Incluir item

• History Lessons

  Open Access•Kenneth L Sokoloff, Stanley L Engerman•The Journal of Economic…•2000

  Incluir item

• The Nobel Prize in Economics

  Open Access•Sanjay G Reddy•Development and Change•2019

  Incluir item

• Britons

  Eliga H Gould, L Colley•The William and Mary Quarterly•1993

  Incluir item

• Locke and the Dispossession of the American Indian

  Open Access•Kathy Squadrito•American Indian Culture and…•1996

  Incluir item