Daron Acemoglu, an Armenian-American economist born in Turkey, received two scholarships from the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to study economics at York University in 1989 and 1990.

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work ‘on the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity”. ‘Societies with poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates‘ research helps us understand why,’ explains the jury.

“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” says Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.

Daron Acemoglu has been a professor at the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) since 1993. The son of Armenians in Istanbul, Acemoglu was educated in the UK, completing his doctorate at the London School of Economics at the age of 25.

This is the second time that the Nobel Committee has honoured a former Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship holder. In 2021, Ardem Patapoutian was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.