Economists Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their influential research on how innovation and «creative destruction» drive long-term economic growth. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the decision on Monday.
Formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the award is worth 11 mln Swedish crowns (approx. $1.2 mln) and concludes this year’s Nobel season.
The Academy praised the laureates for explaining how technological progress spurs the development of new products and production methods, replacing outdated ones and ultimately improving living standards, health and quality of life worldwide.
«Over the last two centuries, the world has seen sustained economic growth for the first time in history. This has lifted vast numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundation of our prosperity,» the Academy said.
Understanding Creative Destruction
The committee emphasised that growth cannot be taken for granted.
«Economic stagnation, not growth, has been the norm for most of human history,» the Academy noted. «Their work shows that we must be aware of, and counteract, threats to continued growth.»
Mokyr, a professor at Northwestern University in the United States, received half the award, while the other half was shared between Aghion, who teaches at the Collège de France, INSEAD and the London School of Economics, and Howitt, a professor at Brown University.
Committee member John Hassler said Mokyr’s historical research had identified key factors behind sustained technological progress. Meanwhile, Aghion and Howitt developed a mathematical model of creative destruction, a continuous process in which innovation renders old technologies obsolete.
Aghion: «Europe Must Reconcile Competition and Industrial Policy»
Speaking at the press conference, Aghion admitted he was «still speechless» after the announcement.
«I did not expect it at all, so I can’t find the words to express what I feel,» he said.
He also urged Europe to learn from the United States and China in combining competition with targeted industrial policies.
«In Europe, in the name of competition policy, we became very anti any form of industrial policy. I think we need to evolve on that,» Aghion said, citing defence, climate, artificial intelligence and biotechnology as key sectors for such an approach.
Nobel Legacy in Economics
The economics prize was introduced in 1969, decades after the original Nobel awards for medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and literature, which were established by Alfred Nobel’s will in 1901.
Past laureates include renowned economists such as Paul Krugman, Milton Friedman and Ben Bernanke. Last year’s prize went to Simon Johnson, James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu for research linking colonial history and institutional development to modern economic inequality.
The 2025 winners now join this distinguished list, celebrated for deepening global understanding of how innovation powers prosperity.
Kursiv also reports that Norwegian officials are investigating a potential leak from the Nobel Peace Prize Committee after an unusual surge in online betting accurately predicted the 2025 laureate just hours before the official announcement.
