The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2025 has been awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt for their trailblazing contributions to understanding innovation-led growth and creative destruction, the Swedish Academy said on Monday, October 13.
Joel Mokyr was awarded for his ability to recognize the conditions necessary to ensure persistent growth through technological advance, whereas Aghion and Howitt were awarded for their model of sustained growth through creative destruction, a term used to explain how existing industries give way to new ones to propel economies.
The prize, created in 1968, has been awarded 56 times to 96 winners, over a variety of contributions to modern economics. More recently, it has recognized advances from institutions and governance to labour markets and poverty reduction.
Since 2000, the winners' research has varied broadly:
James Heckman (2000) and Daniel McFadden (2000) developed econometric techniques.
George A. Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Joseph Stiglitz (2001) examined markets with asymmetric information.
Daniel Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith (2002) integrated psychology and experimental economics.
Robert Engle and Clive Granger (2003) introduced new techniques for the analysis of economic time series.
Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott (2004) examined business cycles and dynamic macroeconomics.
Angus Deaton (2015) investigated consumption, poverty, and welfare, and Richard Thaler (2017) transformed behavioural economics.
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer (2019) applied experimental techniques to combat world poverty.
Current winners have dealt with issues such as climate change (William Nordhaus, Paul Romer, 2018), banks and financial crises (Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond, Philip Dybvig, 2022), and women's labor market performance (Claudia Goldin, 2023).
This year's award to Mokyr, Aghion, and Howitt builds on a tradition of economists whose work shapes policy, innovation, and world economic growth. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences keeps honoring the thinkers who illuminate not only markets, but also the forces of prosperity across the world.
