James Robinson is winning the Nobel Prize for Economics this year alongside his co-author Daron Acemoglu and fellow economist, Simon Johnson.

This is obviously extremely exciting for him, but as well selfishly, rather exciting for me… because in episode 24, James Robinson was one of the first people I ever interviewed for this podcast. 

James co-wrote an outrageously successful book in 2012 called - ‘Why Nations Fail’ - which is the work for which James has won the Nobel Prize and as well, was the subject of this interview. 

Why Nations Fail introduces an extractive versus inclusive institutions framework that does an unreasonable amount of heavy lifting to explain the distributed economic prosperity between countries.

And just fair warning, it is one of the first interviews I ever did, so it may feel quite a bit different to those more recently - but bare with me and endure my enthusiasm as James reveals where the catalyst for the inclusive/extractive framework comes from, a very hot take on corruption, James’s work as a developmental economist and a whole lot more. 

It’s also been a while since Ive made a general appeal for pumping that good juice. But if a Nobel Prize winner isn’t a reason why, then there aren't any left. The ability for me to get the guests I want, and grow the show as I ambition, is all downstream of how many followers on Apple and Spotify I have, but as well, how many reviews on Apple and Spotify I have. So I ask, hat in hand, to please bring that Christmas cheer and pump a 5 star review into whichever platform it is that you listen on.