WORLD
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt win 2025 Nobel Prize for economics
- IBJ Bureau
- Oct 14, 2025
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the 2025 Nobel Prize for economics on Monday for their work on how innovation and the forces of “creative destruction” can drive economic growth and lift living standards across the globe.
Their research explains how technology gives rise to new products and production methods, which replace old ones and result in a better standard of living, health and quality of life.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said that the laureates had also shown that such progress cannot be taken for granted.
“Economic stagnation, not growth, has been the norm for most of human history. Their work shows that we must be aware of and counteract threats to continued growth,” the Academy said.
The prize winners themselves highlighted challenges from US President Donald Trump’s trade policies and his administration’s higher education reforms which are considered by some as an attack on academic freedom.
While most economists view economic growth as a driver of prosperity, there are some who do not see it as an unalloyed good.
The prestigious award, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the final prize to be given out this year and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million).
Mr Mokyr, a professor at Northwestern University in the United States, was awarded half the prize. Mr Aghion – a professor at the College de France and INSEAD in Paris and at the London School of Economics and Political Science – and Mr Howitt – a professor at Brown University in the United States – shared the other half of the prize.
The research of Mr Mokyr, an Israeli-American, looks at why we are so much richer and live so much better than our great-great-grandfathers. Mr Mokyr added that he was worried that the US may lose its place at the vanguard of scientific research and education under President Trump.
Mr Aghion, a French economist, warned that “dark clouds” were gathering amid increasing barriers to trade and openness, fuelled by Mr Trump’s trade wars. He also said that innovation in green industries and blocking the rise of giant tech monopolies would be vital to stronger growth in future.
Speaking as he accepted the prize, he said AI had “fantastic growth potential” but called on governments to develop strict competition policies to manage the growth of new tech companies. “Some superstar firms may end up dominating everything and inhibiting potential entry of new innovators. So, how can we make sure that today’s innovators will not stifle future entry and innovation?”
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