STOCKHOLM – The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three Americans Monday for their research into why some countries succeed and others fail. Two of the three economists are professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Nobel Prize economics

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson “have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity,” the Nobel committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the announcement in Stockholm.

“Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why,” it added.

Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robinson conducts his research at the University of Chicago.

“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said.

He said their research has provided “a much deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.”

“Never expect something like this”

Reached by the academy in Athens, Greece, where he is due to speak at a conference, Acemoglu said he was surprised and shocked by the award.

“You never expect something like this,” he said.

The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.

Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, it is always presented together with the others on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

Last year, Harvard University professor Claudia Goldin was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.

Associated Press reporters Daniel Niemann and Mike Corder contributed to this report.

Mexican authorities said Sunday they had found the bodies of five decapitated men on a road in western Jalisco state, the latest grisly find in the violence-plagued country.

The bodies were found in black plastic bags in the municipality of Ojuelos, in northeastern Jalisco, the state prosecutor’s office said.

“A report was received indicating that, on the asphalt strip of the road (…) there were several bags that looked like human silhouettes,” it said.

Upon arriving at the site, National Guard members found the headless bodies of five men, wearing only pants.

Nearby, they found another bag containing what appeared to be the heads of the victims, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that forensic scientists were combing the area for evidence.

The municipality of Ojuelos borders the city of Lagos de Moreno, which has been the scene of several grisly killings blamed on organized crime.

One of the most notorious cases involved the disappearance of five young people on August 11, 2023, whose torture and murder was later revealed in a video posted on social media.

The violence in Jalisco is blamed chiefly on the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal groups.  The Jalisco cartel is better known for producing millions of doses of deadly fentanyl and smuggling them into the United States disguised to look like Xanax, Percocet or oxycodone. Such pills cause about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.

The U.S. government has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Jalisco cartel leader Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho.” 

According to official figures, 1,415 people were murdered in Jalisco state between January and September of this year.

Across Mexico, more than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands have gone missing in a spiral of violence since the government deployed the army to combat drug trafficking in 2006.

Last week, the mayor of Chilpancingo city in Guerrero state, Alejandro Arcos, was found beheaded less than a week after taking office. Local media reported that his head was left on the hood of a pick-up truck.

One day later, officials said four other mayors in Mexico asked federal authorities for protection.

Earlier this month, 12 bodies — all bearing signs of torture and left with messages by cartels — were found in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.

Mexico’s first woman president Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, faces a major challenge to tackle the cartel violence.

She has pledged to stick with her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots.

“The war on drugs will not return,” the leftist president told a news conference this week, referring to the U.S.-backed offensive launched in 2006.

Across the U.S., family members caring for loved ones provide an estimated $600 billion in unpaid services each year, sacrificing time, money and often their well-being to care for aging loved ones, according to an AARP survey.

As Congress considers a bill that would provide family caregivers a tax credit, quantifying how much that time is worth is proving to be difficult.

Amy Goyer understands the challenge. Caring for her aging parents meant turning her life upside down. Her mother had a stroke in her late 60s and her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Family caregivers face a financial toll

Pictures line the walls of Goyer’s home in Chandler, Arizona. They’re filled with memories of a lifetime that became a source of stress and financial strain. As a caregiver for her parents, she had to pay for renovations to safety-proof her home. She also lost money and time when she could have been working more to care for her parents. 

“It was financially devastating for me,” Goyer said. “I don’t have regrets about anything I did in caring for my family, but I ended up in bankruptcy after my dad passed away.”

Goyer, also a caregiving expert for AARP with more than 35 years of experience, was not immune to the financial strain of caring for her parents.

“How are you supposed to take care of yourself, your family and your home when you’re working two jobs — one paid and one unpaid for your loved ones?” she asked.

The burden Goyer faced is becoming more common across America. According to a Harvard Business School report, 73% of American workers surveyed provide some type of caregiving at home.

Calculating the cost

Shon Lowe has been caring for her mother, Terrie Montgomery, since her Alzheimer’s diagnosis a decade ago.

The financial toll on families can be high. AARP calculated family caregivers spend an average $7,242 of their own money each year, according to a 2021 survey. That doesn’t include the time they spend taking care of things, such as managing medication, finances and food prep.

Salary.com and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, maker of medications for neurological disorders like dementia, said they created a new tool, which offers a clearer picture of the financial cost of caregiving. The cost is often hidden but felt deeply by families everywhere. 

Lowe tried the Family Caregiver Calculator, which calculates the financial value of caregiving based on geography, time spent, and the type of work done for family caregivers. When she entered the hours she and her siblings spend caring for their mother, the result was $270,103 per year.

“It’s unbelievable,” Lowe said. “Something should be done about that.”

Financial help is available for families

The creators of the Family Caregiver Calculator hope to urge policymakers to pass legislation, which supports unpaid family caregivers and help families budget for caregiving expenses.

“We largely don’t have enough support,” said Amy Goyer.

She added that without more resources, the financial burden will only grow for future generations.

“We’re putting our caregivers’ financial security in jeopardy,” she said. “They’re not going to have the money to pay for someone to care for them.”

While some states have programs that allow family caregivers to receive compensation, Goyer explained these opportunities are limited.

A recent report to Congress by the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregiving Council proposed several potential solutions to ease this burden, including a federal tax credit for family caregivers, immigration reform to expand the caregiver workforce, and expanding grant programs for states.

These solutions offer hope to families struggling under the burden of caregiving but require congressional action. If passed, the Credit for Caring Act, introduced in Congress this year, would provide a federal tax credit of up to $5,000 to qualifying caregivers.

AARP is advocating for the passage of this bill, stressing it would bring much-needed relief to caregivers who are often financially stretched while caring for their loved ones.

Without financial help, Goyer said families end up passing down debt from one generation to the next.

“What we’re doing is we’re putting the financial security of our caregivers in jeopardy in the future,” Goyer said. “So they’re not going to have the money to pay for somebody to take care of them.”

contributed to this report.