Nobel Prize in Economics 2025: Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt winners

Joel Mokyr (Northwestern University, the US), Philippe Aghion (College de France and INSEAD, Paris, France) and Peter Howitt (Brown University, the US) on Monday, October 13, won the Nobel Memorial Prize Economic Sciences for 2025. This is the final prize of the Nobel season.

According to a Nobel committee statement, the three were honoured with the prestigious award “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”

"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction." a post from the official X handle of Nobel Prize read.

The winners represent contrasting but complementary approaches to economics . Mokyr is an economic historian who delved into long-term trends using historical sources, while Howitt and Aghion relied on mathematics to explain how creative destruction works.

Nobel Committee's statement on Mokyr

Mokyr used historical sources as one means to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal. 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. The latter was often lacking prior to the industrial revolution, which made it difficult to build upon new discoveries and inventions. He also emphasised the importance of society being open to new ideas and allowing change.

About Aghion & Howitt's work

Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt studied the mechanisms behind sustained growth. In an article from 1992, they constructed a mathematical model for what is called 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. However, it is also destructive, as the company whose technology becomes passé is outcompeted.

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