Alumni/ae

Prof. Simon Johnson, a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, speaks with Bloomberg about his research on the impacts of technology on inequality and the future of democracy. “We have not generated enough new good jobs, jobs where you actually get paid good money and you can live well, and we have got to do better on that,” says Johnson. “Automation is going to happen, like it or not, so you have really got to work harder to generate more science, more technology, deploy that, commercialize that, scale it up and generate more good jobs across the country.” 

Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Simon Johnson are two recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences for their work “highlighting that institutions set up during colonization have had an enduring impact on economic outcomes in the countries affected, “reports Delphine Strauss for the Financial Times. “Their research also indicates that more economically inclusive and politically democratic systems prove more conducive to technological innovation and long-run growth.” 

The Nobel Prize in economics has been awarded to Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson for their work studying the impact of societal institutions on country prosperity,” reports Neil Irwin for Axios. The awarded research uncovers why “some nations prosper while other are mired in poverty,” explains Irwin. “[It helps] explain why, showing that colonial societies built on extraction of wealth became poorer in the long run.”

The Associated Press highlights commentary from Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Simon Johnson following the announcement that the economists had been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their research into “why societies with poor rule of law and exploitative institutions do not generate sustainable growth.”. Acemoglu emphasized: Democracy directly “contributes to economic growth, not easily, not right away, it takes a couple of years and it's a difficult business to make democracy work. But generally, countries that democratize grow faster and they grow the right way, meaning they grow in a way that is more equal, and invest more in education and health, so both political and economic inclusion matter, and they are synergistic.”

The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson for their “research on prosperity gaps between countries – specifically how European colonization led to some nations being rich while others poor,” reports Rachel Siegel for The Washington Post. Speaking about the inspiration for his research, Johnson noted that questions around which countries became rich, and the extent to which institutions played a role, “were not really central to the economics I learned in graduate school. We had to do a lot of work to convince people institutions actually mattered in a really big way.”

Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Simon Johnson have been honored with the Nobel Prize in economics sciences for their work tracing “the institutional roots of national prosperity by exploring the vastly different outcomes in former European colonies,” explains Scott Horsley for NPR’s Morning Edition. “Democracies are going through a rough patch," says Acemoglu. "And it is in some sense quite crucial that they reclaim the high ground of better governance, cleaner governance, and delivering sort of the promise of democracy to a broad range of people."

 

Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson are two of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in economic sciences. Johnson joined CBS Boston to discuss his Nobel Prize-winning research and the potential impact of AI. "People are both too optimistic and too pessimistic if they believe AI can do more things than it really can, but they haven't thought through the way in which it could really wipe out middle-skill, middle-education, middle-income jobs,” says Johnson. 

Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson have been awarded the Nobel Prize in economic sciences for their research that “advanced the understanding of economic disparities among countries,” reports Paul Hannon and Justin Lahart for The Wall Street Journal. “I’ll be very happy if this prize contributes to having more awareness of the importance of building better institutions, building better democracy,” said Acemoglu. “I think those are urgent challenges for us.”

AP reporters Daniel Niemann, Mike Corder and Paul Wiseman highlight the work of Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, who have been honored with the Nobel Prize in economic sciences for their work demonstrating “the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity.” Says Johnson of how AI could impact workers: “AI could either empower people with a lot of education, make them more highly skilled, enable them to do more tasks and get more pay. Or it could be another massive wave of automation that pushes the remnants of the middle down to the bottom.”

Prof. Simon Johnson, one of the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize in economics, joins the PBS NewsHour to discuss the inspiration for his research, the role of institutions in economies around the world and how technology could be harnessed to create better jobs for all. Johnson notes that through his work with the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, he and his colleagues hope to “get more good jobs in the United States and around the world.” He adds that in the past, “we have managed things so that technology delivered benefits for a broad cross-section of society. But that's not what we have done in the past four decades. We need a course-correction, and that's what we're going to work on.”

Boston Globe reporter Alexa Gagosz spotlights the work of Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics for their research examining global inequality. MIT President Sally Kornbluth called Acemoglu and Johnson, who first stepped foot on MIT’s campus in 1985 as a graduate student, “prolific and influential scholars” whose work “reflects a very MIT interest in making a positive impact in the real world.” Kornbluth added: “Their historical investigations have a great deal to teach us about how and why real societies fail or thrive. And they [have] both become familiar voices in the news, public intellectuals trying to help us all make sense of a tumultuous world.”

Profs. Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson PhD '89 have been awarded the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their work explaining the gaps in prosperity between nations and advancing our understanding of inequality, reports Jeanna Smialek for The New York Times. “Reducing the huge differences in income between countries is one of our times’ greatest challenges,” said Jakob Svensson, chairman of the economics prize committee. Thanks to the economists’ “groundbreaking research,” he said, “we have a much deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.” Acemoglu reacted to winning the prize, noting that: “You dream of having a good career, but this is over and on top of that.” 

Maria Lucchi SM '24 speaks with Andy Gray of Supply Chain 24/7 about her “journey from working the deli counter at her local supermarket to her current role as a Supply Demand Planner at Apple.” Says Lucchi of MIT’s Supply Chain Management Graduate Program: “MIT gave me the opportunity to think about the type of person and co-worker I wanted to become.” She added that: “Our executive director, Dr. Saénz, always talks about a footprint. So I really thought about what kind of footprint I wanted to leave behind.”

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros '75, PhD '79 and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA, “a tiny class of RNA molecules that play a crucial role in determining how organisms mature and function – and how they sometimes malfunction,” reports Teddy Rosenbluth and Derrick Bryson Taylor for The New York Times. Ambros and Ruvkun “had been postdoctoral fellows at the same time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” they explain . “As they studied C. elegans, they at first felt a smidgen of friendly competition as they each started their own labs in the Boston area, Dr. Ambros said.”

Victor Ambros '75, PhD '79 and Gary Ruvkun have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNAs, report Mark Johnson and Lizette Ortega for The Washington Post. “Ambros and Ruvkunhad worked together as postdoctoral researchers in the lab of Nobel laureate and MIT Professor Robert Horvitz. “What the microRNAs really end up revealing for us is a way that parts of our genome can communicate with other parts of the genome,” says Ambros. “The significance of this discovery of microRNAs is that it allowed us to be aware of a very complex and nuanced layer of regulation whereby genes in our cells talk to each other.”