Nations fail when extractive economic institutions are supported by extractive political institutions.
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Life and Thought
Daron Acemoglu, born in 1967, is a prominent Turkish-born economist of Armenian descent and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is internationally known for his foundational research on the role of political and economic institutions in development and on the causes of poverty and wealth among nations.
Daron Acemoglu was born in 1967 in Istanbul, Turkey, into an Armenian family. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of York in Britain and received his PhD in 1992 from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1993 and became a full professor in 2004.
Acemoglu’s research focuses mainly on political economy, development economics, income inequality, the analysis of institutions, and the impact of technology on labor. In collaboration with James Robinson, he developed the theory of extractive and inclusive institutions, arguing that differences in national wealth and development arise not from geography or culture, but from the quality of countries’ political and economic institutions.
His best-known books with James Robinson include Why Nations Fail (2012) and The Narrow Corridor (2019), both of which have become classic works in political economy. Acemoglu also received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005 and is considered one of the most highly cited contemporary economists.