Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson
Citation: For studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.
The key idea
Inclusive vs extractive institutions. Inclusive institutions (broad property rights, rule of law, political pluralism) produce sustained growth. Extractive institutions (elite-controlled, narrow rents) produce stagnation or boom-bust cycles. Colonial origins explain much of the modern institutional divergence.
The explanation
Acemoglu-Johnson-Robinson's 2001 paper used colonial settler mortality as an instrument for institutional quality — finding a huge causal effect. Why Nations Fail (2012) popularised the inclusive-extractive distinction. Their framework explains why Botswana (inclusive institutions inherited from pre-colonial structures) diverged from Sierra Leone (extractive resource-grab institutions).
Why Africa should care
AJR is the prize most directly about Africa. Their colonial-origins hypothesis explicitly explains African economic divergence. The framework underlies the Ibrahim Index, the AfDB's governance assessments, and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. The Botswana-Zimbabwe-DRC comparison is the textbook AJR case. Their answer to 'why is Africa poor?' is: extractive institutions inherited from colonial settler-mortality patterns and reinforced post-independence.
How to use it
When evaluating an African development strategy, ask which institutions it strengthens or weakens — and whether those institutions are inclusive (broaden opportunity) or extractive (narrow rents). Resource-discovery booms typically activate extractive institutions absent active institutional design.
Watch out for
Critics (notably the AGRA, Easterly, and Sen lines) argue AJR overweight institutional path-dependence and underweight policy choice and human agency. The 'institutions cause growth' story is true on average but doesn't fully explain Ethiopia's recent growth or Singapore's transformation.
Canonical works
- Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2001) "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation" American Economic Review
- Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (2012) "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" Crown
- Mo Ibrahim Foundation (2024) "Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)"
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