Philippe Aghion is awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics
On Monday, 13 October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics to three researchers: Philippe Aghion, an alumnus of the 1976–1980 cohort at ENS Cachan (now ENS Paris-Saclay) and a founding member of Université Paris-Saclay; Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University; and Peter Howitt, Brown University.
Entering the Department of Mathematics at ENS Paris-Saclay in 1975 and a founding member of Université Paris-Saclay, Philippe Aghion continued his studies at Paris 1, then at Harvard, where he earned a PhD in Economics. He subsequently pursued a distinguished career: professor at MIT, Harvard, and University College London, and today holds the Chair of "Economics of Institutions, Innovation and Growth" at the Collège de France, as well as Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.
His research in theoretical and applied macroeconomics has developed a new vision of growth based on innovation, structural reforms, and resilient macroeconomic policies. His intellectual engagement, notably within the Conseil d’analyse économique, has illuminated major contemporary challenges related to the transformation of our economies.
His trajectory exemplifies the value of a multidisciplinary education, such as that offered by ENS Paris-Saclay, where boundaries between mathematics, social sciences, economics, law, engineering, and life sciences become bridges that support a comprehensive understanding of pressing contemporary issues. This multidisciplinary approach enables the training of researchers capable of inventing new models and rigorously interrogating public policies.
Actively involved in societal debates, Philippe Aghion emphasises that innovation cannot be conceived without an ambitious educational policy. This vision aligns closely with the values upheld by ENS Paris-Saclay: cultivating independent, rigorous, and engaged minds, convinced that knowledge is the key to forthcoming transformations.
This Nobel Prize recognises an exceptional career dedicated to research and innovation, and illustrates the fundamental impact of his work on our understanding of economic growth. Through this remarkable trajectory, the scientific rigor, disciplinary openness, and intellectual ambition of ENS Paris-Saclay and the Université Paris-Saclay ecosystem are also acknowledged.
The Nobel Prize rewards major contributions to understanding economic growth driven by innovation. The laureates’ work has profoundly renewed growth theory by demonstrating the central role of the process of creative destruction, in which technological progress replaces older technologies, generating both economic advancement and challenges.