STOCKHOLM — Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the Nobel memorial prize in economics Monday for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth” including the key principle of creative destruction.

The winners represent contrasting but complementary approaches to economics. Mokyr is an economic historian who delved into long-term trends using historical sources, while Howitt and Aghion relied on mathematics to explain how creative destruction works.

Dutch-born Mokyr, 79, is from Northwestern University; Aghion, 69, from the College de France and the London School of Economics; and Canadian-born Howitt, 79, from Brown University.

Aghion said he was shocked by the honor. “I can’t find the words to express what I feel,” he said by phone to the press conference in Stockhol

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