Innovation‑driven growth is at the center of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, awarded in Stockholm to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for explaining how sustained technological change powers long‑term prosperity.
Why these three and why now: creative destruction and sustained growth
The laureates’ work shows how repeated waves of innovation trigger creative destruction, where new technologies displace older ones and raise productivity over decades. Mokyr connects long‑run growth to the historical interplay between scientific knowledge, technology and culture.
Aghion and Howitt formalize how competition for new ideas leads firms to innovate, even as successful innovations render previous technologies obsolete.
Endogenous innovation as the engine of modern economies
In this research tradition, innovation is endogenous—it responds to incentives, institutions and human capital. The models that emerged from the laureates’ work help explain why some economies avoid stagnation and others fall behind, and why policy choices around education, R&D, openness and competition shape the speed and direction of technological change.
Prize details and background
The prize amount is SEK 11 million (approximately €0.95 million), with half to Joel Mokyr and half shared by Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt. Officially named the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, it has been awarded since 1968 and is presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Recent awards have recognized advances in institutions and growth, auction design, and development economics, underlining the field’s policy relevance.
