A life in context
The person behind the prize
Aghion is a French economist who studies innovation, competition and long-run growth. His collaboration with Peter Howitt gave mathematical form to an old idea: new technologies create opportunities partly by replacing older ways of producing things.
The contribution
Their 1992 model made creative destruction a mechanism of sustained growth. It connects incentives to invent with the prospect that a successful innovation will itself be displaced by a later one.
The idea in plain language
An invention can improve life once. Sustained growth requires a continuing flow of better methods and products. Mokyr investigated the historical conditions that let scientific understanding and practical know-how keep reinforcing each other.
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