Stockholm, 14 October 2024 (dpa/MIA) - A trio of US-based experts have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics for their insights into helping explain global inequality and how state institutions affect a nation's prosperity.

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, who work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Chicago-based James A. Robinson were awarded the prize "for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Monday.

Turkish-American economist Acemoglu, who wrote the widely acclaimed book "Why Nations Fail" in 2012, had been tipped as a favourite for this year's prize by several economists.

Jakob Svensson, the chair of the economics prize committee, said the experts had helped to explain why the gaps between rich and poor nations were so persistent, describing the issue as one of the "most urgent" questions in the social sciences.

They had "pioneered new approaches, both empirical and theoretical, that have significantly advanced our understanding of global inequality," he said.

Their work explained why "extractive economic institutions and dictatorships often persist even when reforming them would benefit most," and suggested under what conditions such institutions are likely to change.

Last year's prize went to US economist Claudia Goldin for her research into the role of women in the labour market. Prior to that, the prize had been awarded several times to two or three people at the same time.

Officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the award is worth 11 million kronor (just over $1 million), the same as the other Nobel categories in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace, announced last week.

Many of the winners this year in the academic fields came from the United States.

The literature prize went to South Korean author Han Kang, and the peace prize on Friday was awarded to the Japanese atomic bomb survivors' group, Nihon Hidankyo.

Like with the other prizes announced last week, the official award ceremony will take place in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

Photo: MIA archive