Joel Mokyr, a professor at Northwestern University, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and a professor of economics and history in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern.
A press conference featuring Mokyr is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT today at Cahn Auditorium on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. The event will be livestreamed on the university’s website. Reporters can submit questions in advance by email.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2025 to three economists. Mokyr receives half of the prize for his work on a theory explaining sustained economic growth. According to the Academy, "Mokyr identified three important requisites for growth: useful knowledge, mechanical competence and institutions conducive to technological progress."
The remaining half of the prize goes to Philippe Aghion of the Collège de France and the London School of Economics, and Peter Howitt of Brown University, who developed a mathematical model describing sustained growth through creative destruction. Howitt earned his doctorate in economics from Northwestern in 1973.
Mokyr specializes in European economic history from 1750 to 1914, focusing on technological progress and its effects on economic welfare.
Northwestern University has had several previous Nobel laureates, including Sir Fraser Stoddart (Chemistry, 2016), Dale T. Mortensen (Economics, 2010), and John A. Pople (Chemistry, 1998).
For more information, readers can access the full story on Northwestern Now.