Overview

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2025 prize for explaining innovation-driven growth, with 11 million SEK in total, half to Joel Mokyr and half shared by Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt.
• Mokyr was cited for identifying the historical prerequisites for sustained technological progress, emphasizing scientific understanding of why innovations work and societal openness to new ideas.
• Aghion and Howitt were honored for formalizing creative destruction in a 1992 model that explains how new products displace old ones, driving growth while creating conflicts that must be managed.
• The committee warned that growth is not guaranteed and called for upholding competitive and knowledge-diffusing mechanisms, noting risks such as monopolies, protectionism, and constraints on academic freedom.
• Affiliations listed in the announcement include Northwestern University for Mokyr, Collège de France/INSEAD and the London School of Economics for Aghion, and Brown University for Howitt, with Aghion urging policies that reconcile competition with industrial strategy.