The Nobel Prize in Economics rewards research on the impact of technology on economic growth.

BarcelonaIsraeli-American Joel Mokyr, Frenchman Phillipe Aghion, and Canadian Peter Howitt are the three economists who have won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has recognized the laureates' quest for "having explained economic growth caused by innovation," as explained economic growth.

"The laureates have taught us that sustained growth cannot be taken for granted. Economic stagnation, not growth, has been the norm for most of human history," said Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of the Swedish Academy, at the prize presentation ceremony. "Their work shows that we must be vigilant and counter threats to continued growth," he added about the winners' quest.

If we stop to think, beneath this growth there is a lot of turbulence: in the US, 10% of companies leave the market each year, and 10% enter. "How is it possible that such a disruptive process can generate the stable growth patterns we see?" said Kerstin Enflo, a member of the prize jury.

The winners' research answers this question: in Mokyr's case, through a historical study of the impact of technology, and in Howitt and Aghion's case, through the theory known as "creative destruction." The winners found that growth over the past two centuries has been based primarily on technological innovation.

"I didn't expect it at all. I can't find the words to express what I feel," Aghion said of the award during a telephone call to the presentation ceremony. Asked about the main obstacles to growth, Aghion highlighted the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. "Openness is an engine of growth, and anything that gets in the way is an obstacle," he said.

"I haven't welcomed the wave of protectionism in the US; it's not good for growth in the United States or the world," he added, but he emphasized that there could be a positive side to Europe's decision to invest more in technological research and innovation. "European countries shouldn't let the US and China become technological leaders," commented the award winner, who called for the continent to invest more in relaxing regulations to facilitate European research beyond "basic research."

Money for a research laboratory

Howitt and Aghion will share half of the prize. The former was born in 1946 and graduated in economics in 1968 from McGill University in Montreal, in his native Canada, but completed his doctorate at Northwestern University, outside Chicago. He is currently a professor at Brown University, also in the US.

As for Aghion, he was born in Paris in 1956 and studied at the Sorbonne and Paris-Saclay universities before completing his doctorate at Harvard University. He is currently a professor at the Collège de France and at the INSEAD business school, both in the French capital, as well as at the London School of Economics. He is the son of Gaby Aghion, a French designer of Sephardic Egyptian origin who founded the fashion brand Chloé and coined the concept ready-to-wear.

The French economist has said he wants to use the prize money for the "research lab" he runs at Insead and the Collège de France, where "many young researchers" work in fields such as green growth and artificial intelligence.

Mokyr, who will receive the other half of the prize, was born in 1946 in Leiden, Netherlands, to Jewish parents who were Holocaust survivors. He grew up in Haifa, Israel, where he was raised by his mother after his father died of cancer when he was a child. After graduating in economics and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he earned a doctorate in economics from Yale University in the United States and currently teaches at Northwestern University.

The prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor (about 997,000 euros). However, this prize was not created by Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in 1969 by the Bank of Sweden under the name of the Bank of Sweden Honorary Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, with the consent of the Nobel Foundation.