Traditional explanations for the differences in wealth between nations don't go deep enough, one of the nation's most promising young economists believes.

The presence of markets and other commonly cited factors such as climate "are one level of the onion that we need to peel further to make progress" in understanding how economies develop, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Daron Acemoglu told University of Pittsburgh students and faculty yesterday.

Acemoglu's research into the role political and social institutions play in economic development led to his recently receiving the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. The award, given every other year, recognizes the nation's most important economist under 40.

Acemoglu argues that political and social institutions play a primary role in how economies grow and develop, typically more so than the physical assets that a region may offer. As an example, he cited the experiences of European colonizers centuries ago.

In places such as Haiti or parts of Africa that had a lot of people or were rich in resources, he noted that the colonizers often would establish institutions such as slavery, while in less densely populated areas such as North America and Australia, they settled and created legal systems to protect their property.

These institutional differences still affect the people and the economies of the regions today.

Acemoglu was presenting the 10th annual Marion O'Kellie McKay Lecture, named for the chair of Pitt's economics department for 30 years. Eleven of the 29 John Bates Clark Medal winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize for economics.