Three economists win Nobel in economics

Three economists; Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, have won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their pioneering research on economic growth.

Mokyr will receive half of the award “for identifying the preconditions for sustainable economic growth through technological advancement,” while Aghion and Howitt will share the remaining half “for their work on sustainable growth through creative destruction,” the jury announced. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences revealed the winners on Monday, October 13.

The official title of this prestigious award is The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It is the final Nobel Prize to be announced this year and carries a monetary value of approximately 1.2 million US dollars.

In its statement, the Nobel Academy said, “These three economists have taught us that sustained economic growth is not a natural state of affairs; throughout most of history, economic stagnation has been the norm. Their research demonstrates that innovation must be both protected and encouraged to achieve sustainable growth.”

Joel Mokyr is a professor at Northwestern University in the United States. Philippe Aghion currently teaches at Collège de France and INSEAD in Paris, as well as at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. Peter Howitt is a professor at Brown University in the United States.

Nobel Committee member John Hassler said, “Joel Mokyr identified the factors that underpin sustainable growth dependent on technological innovation through historical analysis.”

He added, “Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt developed a mathematical model of ‘creative destruction’ — an endless process in which new and improved products replace the old.”