Peter Howitt
Facts
Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach
Peter Howitt
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2025
Born: 31 May 1946, Canada
Affiliation at the time of the award: Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Prize motivation: “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction”
Prize share: 1/4
Work
Over the last two centuries, the world has seen sustained economic growth. However, this was not always the case. In fact it was quite the opposite – in the past there was often stagnation. Peter Howitt and Philippe Aghion studied the mechanisms behind sustained growth. In 1992, they presented a mathematical model for what is called creative destruction: when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out. Creative destruction creates conflicts that must be managed in a constructive manner so that innovation will not be blocked.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
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