Countries with better institutions are more prosperous. A truism perhaps, but then why are they so hard to build and sustain? That is the question that Simon Johnson has sought to explain since the fall of communism and the basis for the research that won him the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Johnson, a former IMF chief economist, now a professor at MIT in the Sloan School of Management, shares the award with James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu, who’s also coauthor of his latest book Power and Progress, which challenges the assumption that technology equals progress. In this podcast, Johnson says when controlled by a select few, tech innovation can be self-serving and risk undermining the institutions that make it possible.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/4b2V1aV