Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0

Author-Name: Balazs Egert
Author-Workplace-Name: OECD Economics Department; EconomiX at Paris Nanterre University; CESifo
Author-Email: balazs.egert@oecd.org
Author-Person: pge21

Title: Spinning Jennies and Silicon: The Economics of Innovating or Evaporating - Creative Destruction and Public Policies

Abstract: This paper reviews the contributions of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics laureates,
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, to our understanding of innovation-driven
economic growth, situating their work within the broader evolution of modern
growth theory and empirical evidence. It highlights why the Industrial Revolution
marked a transition to sustained, self-reinforcing technological progress and
shows how Mokyr's emphasis on knowledge, culture and institutions complements
Aghion and Howitt's Schumpeterian framework, which formalises innovation as a
competitive process of firm entry, exit and technological replacement. The paper
then uses these frameworks to interpret the widespread productivity slowdown
observed in advanced OECD economies since the mid-2000s, arguing that weakened
creative destruction, slower diffusion of frontier technologies, declining business
dynamism and policy headwinds are key explanatory factors.

Classification-JEL: O30, O40, O43, L16, N10
Keywords: innovation, productivity, economic growth, creative destruction, institutions
Pages: 100-130
Volume: 25
Issue: 1
Year: 2026
File-URL: https://hitelintezetiszemle.mnb.hu/sw/static/file/fer-25-1-e1-egert.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:mnb:finrev:v:25:y:2026:i:1:p:100-130