Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt 

Edited by

Robin Wigglesworth

Congratulations to all three for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth”, in the words of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences:

Over the last two centuries, for the first time in history, the world has seen sustained economic growth. This has lifted vast numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundation of our prosperity. This year’s laureates in the Economic Sciences, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, explain how innovation provides the impetus for further progress.

One half of the SKr11mn prize goes to Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University, won it “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress.” He has specialised in the 1750-1914 period and the links between industrialisation and economic growth and welfare.