March 19, 2020—The C.D. Howe Institute is pleased to announce the recognition of Peter Howitt, C.D. Howe Institute International Fellow, and Philippe Aghion by the BBVA Foundation for “fundamental contributions to the study of innovation, technical change, and competition policy." They were co-awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance and Management by the BBVA committee Wednesday.
The two economists are credited with having developed the modern economic framework to empirically validate Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction. While previous attempts to model economic growth left technological change as an external factor, the Aghion-Howitt model identified it as the mechanism of creative destruction produced by innovation at the microeconomic level.
The C.D. Howe Institute congratulates both Peter Howitt and Philippe Aghion for this well-deserved honour recognizing their groundbreaking work.