James A. Robinson is a University Professor at the University of Chicago, with appointments at the Harris School of Public Policy, the Department of Political Science, and the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought. He received the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, jointly with Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, for their research on how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.

Robinson is the co-author, with Daron Acemoglu, of Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, and The Narrow Corridor: States, Society, and the Fate of Liberty. His research examines political and economic development, with a focus on the relationship between institutions, political power, and prosperity. He is also a Fellow at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and holds the chieftaincy title Nwanne di na Mba from the community of Umuchieze in Imo State, Nigeria.