Kathmandu: Renowned economists Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their groundbreaking work in explaining economic growth driven by innovation and creativity.

Mokyr, affiliated with Northwestern University (USA), Aghion with the Collège de France and the London School of Economics (France), and Howitt with Brown University (USA), were honored for their collective contributions to understanding how innovation fuels long-term prosperity.

According to the Nobel Committee, Mokyr’s research demonstrates how innovations build upon one another in a self-reinforcing cycle, emphasizing the importance of understanding not just what works in innovation, but why it works.

Aghion and Howitt were recognized for their 1992 paper that introduced a mathematical model of “creative destruction”, describing how new products and technologies replace older ones, driving continuous economic renewal.

Professor Hans Hasler, chairman of the economics prize committee, remarked that economic growth is not automatic and that societies must embrace creative destruction to prevent stagnation.

Formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the award was established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank. It is announced alongside the other Nobel Prizes—Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace—but is not technically part of the original Nobel set.