New Delhi, Oct. 23 -- This year's (2025) Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences was granted to three economists - Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt - with Mokyr getting half the award money and the other two sharing the rest.

Mokyr developed his thesis on how societies become innovative and do things to improve the quality of life. Phillipe Aghion and Peter Howitt showed how innovation is disruptive and totally replaces the older system and follows the Darwinian theory of evolution - survival of the fittest.

Since Mokyr was the first to espouse the innovation thesis we will focus on his work. He said that social capital or education alone could not create economic growth which led to the Industrial Revolution in England in 17th an...