Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics for explaining how innovation drives economic growth, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced. Mokyr received half the prize money, while Aghion and Howitt shared the other half.
Mokyr studied historical factors enabling growth through technological innovation, while Aghion and Howitt developed a mathematical model of “creative destruction,” showing how new products replace old ones. The prize is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million; €1.04 million).
The award highlights the idea that sustained economic growth is not guaranteed and requires awareness of potential threats, the committee said.
In a busy Nobel prize season, the figure of U.S. president Donald Trump has loomed large in relation to the Nobel Peace Prize.
