Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt

USA / France / Canada

Nobel Prize in Economics, 2025Europe

Awarded for

Explaining economic growth driven by innovation

The story behind the prize

Mokyr won half the prize for showing that sustained growth began when scientific explanation and practical know-how fed each other, from the Industrial Revolution onward. Aghion and Howitt shared the other half for their 1992 model of 'creative destruction', in which new firms and products constantly replace old ones and drive growth.

About

Mokyr (economic historian) studied why technological progress became sustained; Aghion and Howitt modelled 'creative destruction', where new products replace old ones.