Philippe Aghion (Paris, 1956) won last year the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research on the impact of technology and innovation on economic development. Aghion, a professor at the prestigious Collège de France, Insead, and London School of Economics, currently focuses his work on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in growth and how Europe can improve its policies to reduce dependence on Chinese and American tech giants.

The winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics, Philippe Aghion, has championed from Barcelona the effects of artificial intelligence on the economy. According to the expert's calculations, AI can add more than one percentage point to total productivity over a decade. The new contributions, however, are conditional on countries' ability to "build the right institutions" to regulate and promote it. "AI has great potential, but we need to adapt our policies to take advantage of it," he argued at a conference held this Tuesday at the headquarters of the Cercle d'Economia.

This year's Nobel Prize in Economics celebrates two contributions that underlie contemporary understanding of the economics of innovation, and consequently, of economic growth. One, by Joel Mokyr, has already been featured in an article in the ARA (by Albert Carreras, October 13). I will dedicate this one to the work of Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, who jointly formulated a theory of innovation based on Joseph Schumpeter's concept of "creative destruction." It is rigorous, empirically testable, and useful for public policy.