Trio wins economics Nobel for work on tech-driven growth

The Nobel prize in economics was awarded on Monday to American-Israeli Joel Mokyr, France's Philippe Aghion and Canada’s Peter Howitt for work on how technology drives and affects growth.

- 

Mokyr, 79, won one half of the prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth throughtechnological progress,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Aghion, 69, and Howitt, 79, shared the other half “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction,” it added.

John Hassler, chair of the prize committee, told reporters their work answered questions about how technological innovation drives growth and how sustained growth can be maintained. “During almost all of humankind’s history, living standards did not change noticeably from generation to generation. Economic growth was, on average, Zero, and stagnation was the norm,” Hassler said.