Stockholm [Sweden], October 14 (HBTV): The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday announced that the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt ‘for having explained innovation-driven economic growth.’
The 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be shared among the three economists, with one half awarded to Joel Mokyr ‘for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress,’ and the other half jointly to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt ‘for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.’
The Nobel Committee noted that over the past two centuries, the world has experienced sustained economic growth for the first time in history. This growth has lifted millions out of poverty and laid the foundation for modern prosperity. This year’s laureates, it added, have explained how innovation drives that process and provides the momentum for continued progress.
John Hassler, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, stated, ‘The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted. We must uphold the mechanisms that underlie creative destruction so that we do not fall back into stagnation.’
In their groundbreaking 1992 paper, Aghion and Howitt developed a mathematical model for creative destruction—a process in which new and better products replace older ones, forcing less efficient companies out of the market. Their model demonstrates how different forces influence investment in research and development (R&D) and, consequently, economic growth.
According to the committee, technological advancement continuously reshapes markets, with new products and production methods replacing old ones in a perpetual cycle. This process forms the foundation for sustained economic growth, leading to improvements in living standards, health, and overall quality of life across the globe.
Joel Mokyr’s research, meanwhile, examined historical causes behind sustained economic growth becoming the norm. Using historical evidence, he showed that continuous innovation requires not only practical knowledge but also scientific understanding—knowing why something works, not just that it works. Mokyr also underscored the importance of an open society that embraces new ideas and change, a factor that contributed significantly to the Industrial Revolution.
Mokyr, born in 1946 in the Netherlands, holds a PhD from Yale University and serves as a Professor at Northwestern University in the United States.
Philippe Aghion, born in 1956 in Paris, holds a PhD from Harvard University and is a Professor at the Collège de France, INSEAD (Paris), and the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK). Peter Howitt, born in 1946 in Canada, earned his PhD from Northwestern University and is a Professor at Brown University in the United States.
The total prize money of 11 million Swedish kronor will be divided between the winners, with one half awarded to Mokyr and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt.
(ANI)