STOCKHOLM, October 13. /TASS/. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2025 will be awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced.

The laureates were awarded for "having explained innovation-driven economic growth," with one half of the prize going to Mokyr "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress," and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt "for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction," the Nobel Committee said.

The laureates' work demonstrates how new technologies can drive sustainable growth and how innovation drives further progress, Swedish experts explained. "In different ways, the laureates show how creative destruction creates conflicts that must be managed in a constructive manner. Otherwise, innovation will be blocked by established companies and interest groups that risk being put at a disadvantage," the Committee said.

Mokyr used historical sources "as one means to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal." He "demonstrated that if innovations are to succeed one another in a self-generating process, we not only need to know that something works, but we also need to have scientific explanations for why." He also emphasized the importance of society being open to new ideas and allowing change. Aghion and Howitt "constructed a mathematical model for what is called creative destruction: when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out." The innovation represents something new and is thus creative, though it is also destructive, as the company whose technology becomes passe is outcompeted.

"The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted. We must uphold the mechanisms that underly creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation," John Hassler, Chair of the Committee for the prize in economic sciences, was quoted as saying.

Joel Mokyr, born 1946 in Leiden, the Netherlands, is Professor at Northwestern University, IL, USA. Philippe Aghion, born 1956 in Paris, France, is Professor at College de France and The London School of Economics and Political Science. Peter Howitt, born 1946 in Canada, is Professor at Brown University, Providence RI, USA.