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

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  • Balazs Egert

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Balazs Egert, 2026. "Spinning Jennies and Silicon: The Economics of Innovating or Evaporating – Creative Destruction and Public Policies," CESifo Working Paper Series 12572, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12572
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative

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