The Nobel Prizes
Recognising the importance of societal institutions and a world free of nuclear weapons
Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded for Demonstrating Why Institutions Matter for Prosperity
This year's Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson for their research which has demonstrated the importance of societal institutions in determining a country’s prosperity. Their insightful work has helped to better understand why societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. Acemoglu and Robinson are also the authors of the influential book, Why Nations Fail, a must-read book on the subject which was first published in 2012.
The Nobel Peace Prize
The Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for “its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” The grassroots movement has worked with and documented the testimony of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This year's award comes at a time when nuclear powers are upgrading their arsenals and more nations are seeking to acquire nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The award also comes ahead of next year's anniversary marking 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only time in human history that such weapons have been used in warfare.