The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt. In comments to Novaya Gazeta Europe, economist Ruben Enikolopov said the laureates’ work focuses on where innovation comes from, why it drives growth, and what can obstruct its spread.
He said Mokyr showed that major technological breakthroughs became possible through the combination of fundamental and applied science. The first explains why inventions work; the second produces practical solutions and raises new questions for researchers. But science alone is not enough: a culture willing to accept innovation is also needed, otherwise society may block it.
Aghion and Howitt, Enikolopov continued, described innovation as an economic process of investment in research and development. New technologies raise companies’ productivity, help them win market competition, and push outdated firms aside. They defined this mechanism as “creative destruction”.
The economist said the model also shows the dual role of patents and intellectual property protection. On the one hand, they create incentives to invest in new solutions; on the other, they slow their broad diffusion. The key issue, he said, is how to find the right balance between rewarding inventors and maximizing social benefit.
Enikolopov also stressed that technological shifts inevitably produce losers: both firms that lose market position and workers whose skills become less needed. In his view, if such groups are not compensated, they may try to block development. That is why redistribution, compensation mechanisms, and effective antitrust institutions matter.
Speaking about artificial intelligence, he said its consequences are still unclear. But if AI mainly replaces labor rather than raising workers’ productivity, capital will benefit while labor loses out. In that case, he argued, new tax and social policy adjustments may be needed to ease the conflict between investors and wage earners.
Commenting on Russia and China, Enikolopov said authoritarian systems may support innovation only over a limited horizon. In the long run, he argued, the lack of open competition of ideas and political rivalry hampers sustainable technological development. If Russia’s current model remains unchanged, he said, the country will lose out in international competition.