Peter HowittIn his address, Peter Howitt, recipient of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics in 2019, expresses his gratitude for the recognition and highlights his long-standing collaboration with Philippe Aghion — a partnership of more than three decades that led to the development of Schumpeterian growth theory. He explains how this framework placed “creative destruction” at the center of economic analysis, showing that technological progress generates both opportunities and losses for those whose activities become obsolete.
He underscores the implications of these ideas for public policy — from social protection and education to regulation and competition — and warns about the risks posed by entrenched interests seeking to slow innovation. He concludes by stressing the need to steer technological change toward clean solutions that enable sustainable gr
Peter HowittIn his address, Peter Howitt, recipient of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics in 2019, expresses his gratitude for the recognition and highlights his long-standing collaboration with Philippe Aghion — a partnership of more than three decades that led to the development of Schumpeterian growth theory. He explains how this framework placed “creative destruction” at the center of economic analysis, showing that technological progress generates both opportunities and losses for those whose activities become obsolete.
He underscores the implications of these ideas for public policy — from social protection and education to regulation and competition — and warns about the risks posed by entrenched interests seeking to slow innovation. He concludes by stressing the need to steer technological change toward clean solutions that enable sustainable growth in the face of the climate challenge.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category of Economics, Finance and Management has been granted in its twelfth edition to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for their “fundamental contributions to the study of innovation, technological change, and competition policy,” according to the committee’s citation.
