The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Northwestern University professor and Reason contributor Joel Mokyr "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress." He shares the prize with Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, who won the other half jointly "for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction."

Together, the trio had explained how innovation drives economic growth, the academy said, when economic stagnation had been the rule, as opposed to the exception, for the vast majority of human history. As a result of that upswing, countless people have been lifted out of poverty.

For his part, Mokyr's work has focused on the intersection of economics, culture, and histo

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