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The 2025 Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for their work explaining how innovation can drive sustained economic growth.
Mokyr, a professor at Northwestern University in the US, was recognised for his work identifying the prerequisites for sustained economic growth: scientific knowledge of why things work, and society being open to change.
Aghion, professor at the Collège de France and INSEAD in France and the London School of Economics in Britain, and Howitt, at Brown University in the US, were joint winners for developing their theory of “sustained growth through creative destruction”, the committee for the prize in economic sciences said.
This had shown how creative destruction — where new technological breakthroughs replace previous ones — could create conflicts that needed to be resolved, so established players did not block change.
“The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted,” said John Hassler, the committee chair, contrasting the last two centuries of sustained growth with previous experience, where “stagnation was the norm throughout most of human history”.
Aghion, interviewed at a press conference following the announcement, said there were now “dark clouds accumulating” over the global economy, as governments raised new barriers to trade and openness, and struggled to reconcile economic growth with the needs of the environment.
He also drew attention to a widening gap between the technological leadership of the US and China and the “incremental” innovations seen in the Eurozone, because it had not yet found ways to pursue an effective industrial policy while still promoting competition.
The economics Nobel, instituted in 1968, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm and is officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
On Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s main opposition leader, dashing the hopes of US President Donald Trump. Nobel honours were also announced last week in chemistry, literature, medicine and physics. Each award carries prize money of SKr11mn ($1.17mn).
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