The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on the 13th that the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics will be awarded to economists Mokyr, Aghion, and Howitt, in recognition of their interpretations of theories on innovation-driven economic growth.
Mokyr will receive half of the Nobel Prize in Economics prize money for "revealing the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress"; the other half will be shared by Aghion and Howitt, who "proposed the theory of achieving sustained growth through creative destruction."
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated in a press release that in the past 200 years, the world economy has grown at an unprecedented rate. The root cause lies in continuous technological innovation; sustained economic growth comes from new technologies replacing old ones, a process known as "creative destruction." This year’s Nobel Prize winners have used different approaches to explain the causes of this development pattern and the necessary conditions for sustained growth.
The statement noted that Mokyr, through his study of historical data, revealed why sustained growth has become the norm in the modern economy. Aghion and Howitt studied the operational mechanisms behind sustained growth.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences pointed out that the research of the three laureates not only deepens understanding of long-term growth but also provides insights for contemporary issues. For example, the development of artificial intelligence is expected to accelerate knowledge accumulation, but technological progress may also bring negative effects such as environmental pollution and increased social inequality, which require sound policies in response.
Mokyr was born in 1946 and is currently a professor at Northwestern University in the United States. Aghion was born in 1956 and is currently a professor at the Collège de France, INSEAD, and the London School of Economics. Howitt was born in 1946 and is currently a professor at Brown University in the United States.
Among the Nobel series of prizes, the Economics Prize was not established according to the will of the late Swedish chemist Nobel, but was created by the Swedish National Bank in 1968, with prize money provided by the Swedish National Bank.