A 2024 Nobel Laureate in Economics paid a visit to St. FX University on Tuesday. Dr. James A. Robinson of the University of Chicago was at St. FX as the inaugural speaker of the Brian Mulroney Speaker Series. Robinson’s presentation was entitled “A Nation’s Prosperity Relies on its Institutions; the More Inclusive, the Better”.
2024 Nobel Laureate James A. Robinson at St. FX (Ken Kingston photo)
He told an audience of students and local residents that in order for a country to thrive, many factors have to be at play, including incentives, patents, and good governance to encourage ingenuity, creativity and product development.
Robinson used the example of South Korea that in a generation turned from being extremely poor, to like a western European country.
He says there was an intense prioritization of growing the economy and building the institutions that make that last. Robinson says that work began withPresident Park Chun-Hee and his militaristic government in the 1960’s and 70’s. Robinson says the key is sustaining that growth, and it continued when a democratic government returned