He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024 and is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Carnegie Fellowship (2017), the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize (2018), and the Global Economy Prize (2019). He was also awarded the John Bates Clark Medal (2005), the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize (2012), the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2016), and the CME Prize in Mathematical and Statistical Research (2021).
Among his publications: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, Il Saggiatore (2013, with J.A. Robinson); The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty, Il Saggiatore (2020, with J.A. Robinson); Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, Il Saggiatore (2023, with S. Johnson).