Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt
Economists Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth”.One half of the prize was awarded to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
The other half was awarded jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction”, it added.
Over the last two centuries, the world has seen sustained economic growth for the first time in history, the academy said in a press release. This has lifted vast numbers out of poverty and laid the foundation of prosperity, it added.
The three laureates explained how innovation facilitates progress, the academy said.
Mokyr used historical sources to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal, the academy said.
“He demonstrated that if innovations are to succeed one another in a self-generating process, we not only need to know that something works, but we also need to have scientific explanations for why,” it added.
Aghion and Howitt also studied the mechanisms behind sustained growth. They constructed a mathematical model for “creative destruction” – when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out.
“The innovation represents something new and is thus creative,” the academy said. “However, it is also destructive, as the company whose technology becomes passé is outcompeted.”
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that the laureates showed how creative destruction creates conflicts that must be managed constructively.
“Otherwise, innovation will be blocked by established companies and interest groups that risk being put at a disadvantage,” it added.
In 2024, economists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on the formation of societal institutions and its effect on prosperity.
On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance”.
The prize in physics was awarded to scientists John M Martinis, John Clarke and Michel Devoret on Tuesday “for the development of metal–organic frameworks”.
On Wednesday, the prize in chemistry was awarded to scientists Omar M Yaghi, Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson for “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”.
The Nobel Prize for Literature was given to Hungarian novelist and screenwriter László Krasznahorkai on Thursday for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”.
On Friday, Venezuelan Opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democratic rights and her struggle in achieving a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
The prize in economics was last to be announced this year.
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