Nobel Prize in Economics awarded for research on innovation and growth

This year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to American-Israeli scholar Joel Mokyr, French economist Philippe Aghion, and Canadian researcher Peter Howitt for their groundbreaking work on how innovation drives long-term economic growth. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners on Monday.

The 11 million Swedish kronor prize (around 1 million euros) will be split in two: one half to Mokyr, who was born in Leiden, the Netherlands, and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt.

Their research explains how new technologies and ideas can generate sustained growth, a phenomenon that has lifted billions out of poverty over the past two centuries. 

Mokyr explored historical evidence to show that innovation flourishes when societies are open to new ideas and when scientific understanding supports technological progress. Aghion and Howitt, in turn, developed the influential theory of “creative destruction”: the process by which new innovations replace outdated technologies and firms, driving progress but also causing economic disruption. Their work highlights the need to manage these transitions so that innovation is not stifled by powerful incumbents.

“The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted”, said John Hassler, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Economic Sciences. “We must uphold the mechanisms that underlie creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation.”

The trio succeed last year’s winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, who were honoured for their studies on global inequality.

Officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the award was established in 1969 (later than the original Nobel Prizes) and has never been won by a Belgian.

^{The entrance of the Alfred Nobel Museum in Stockholm © Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP}