The Nobel Prize in economics to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt
The coveted award was made official today in Stockholm by the Nobel Committee for Economics composed of members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Nobel Prize in Economics 2025, dedicated this year to "creation and destruction", was awarded to Frenchman Philippe Aghion, Canadian Peter Howitt and US-Israeli economist Joel Mokyr,"for explaining innovation-driven economic growth."
The award goes half to Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois "for identifying the prerequisites for sustainable growth through technological progress" and half jointly to Philippe Aghion (College de France and Insead in Paris and London School of Economics and Political Science) and Peter Howitt (Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island) "for the theory of sustainable growth through creative destruction".
The awarding of the coveted prize - which closes the annual season after the five that took place last week - was made official today in Stockholm by the Nobel Committee for Economics composed of members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Nobel Committee for Economics, which is composed of members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, was also the final committee of the Nobel Committee for Economics
In the last two centuries, for the first time in history, the world has witnessed sustained economic growth. This has lifted huge numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundations for our prosperity," the Academy writes in announcing the award. "This year's Nobel Prize winners in economics, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, explain how innovation gives impetus to further progress.
Mokyr, in particular, 'used historical sources as a means of discovering the causes of the sustained growth that has become the new normal': 'He showed that, for innovations to follow one another in a process of self-generation, it is not only necessary to know that something works, but it is also necessary to have scientific explanations as to why. The latter was often lacking before the industrial revolution, which made it difficult to develop new discoveries and inventions. He also emphasised the importance of society being open to new ideas and allowing for change'.
