“It’s a great honor and it’s amazing that it’s happening while I’m in Athens, the home of democracy,” said MIT Distinguished Professor of Economics and 2024 Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu from the Economist conference in Crab Vouliagmeni, after being informed that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

“I received this award for my work on institutions, which is even more important today, when we are facing so many changes with artificial intelligence, inequality and climate change. We should focus more on stronger and more democratic institutions. It matters for the world we will leave to our children and grandchildren,” said Mr. Acemoglu, who has written the book “Why Nations Fail” with James Robinson.

“Before I received the phone call I received an email from a member of the Commission asking me what my phone number is. So I familiarized myself with the prospect…”, he said characteristically, when asked by the chairman of the Economist conference, John Andrews, if he knew in advance that he would win the Nobel Prize.

What he had said earlier in the proceedings of the conference, shortly before he was informed that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics:

Four trends will play an important role in tomorrow’s world, as highlighted by MIT Distinguished Professor of Economics Daron Acemoglu from the floor of the Economist’s 8th Sustainability Conference:

1) artificial intelligence, inequality and jobs;

2) aging,

3) climate change and

4) crisis of democracy.

Technology creates enormous opportunities, but not everyone benefits equally, he noted, explaining that, for example, low-educated strata do not benefit. This is due, as he said, to the weakness of unions in recent decades. In addition, he mentioned that productivity is also not doing well in the digital age. In order for wages not to be negatively affected by automation and for workers in general to benefit from the technological transition, an appropriate institutional environment is required, Mr. Acemoglou stressed. There will also be a shortage of talent due to global ageing, he said, while pointing out that in practice the relationship between aging and growth is not always negative.

In this context, Mr. Acemoglou cited as an example countries such as Germany and South Korea, which have thrown their weight behind technology in order to deal with the consequences of an aging population.

Regarding the third axis, he said that with the investments made and with the support of the citizens, there is a real rally in the competitiveness of RES. After the 2010s, cheap natural gas made renewables less profitable, so now more innovation is needed, he noted. In closing, Mr. Acemoglou spoke about the slide of many countries in the indicators of democracy in recent years, also due to the pressure of economic transformations. Authoritarian leaders have become more popular, he added, and stressed that when institutions check corruption and inequality does not increase, democracy can do well.

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