“A Lifetime Dream”: Canadian economist Hoyt is among the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics – National

Canadian economist Peter Hewitt is among a group of three researchers who won this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Monday that Hewitt, along with Dutch-born Joel Mokyr and Frenchman Philippe Aghion, received the award “for explaining economic growth based on innovation.”

Hoyt, who arrived early Monday, said he was thrilled.

“It’s just a lifelong dream come true,” he added.

Hewitt said he learned of the award from a persistent Swedish reporter who called his wife’s phone early in the morning, even before the committee could contact the economist.

By the time Howitt received his official notice from the committee, he already knew this.

Hoyt said his day started to look very different after the call.

“I’m going to spend the day answering phone calls,” he said.

“We didn’t have any champagne in the fridge just in case,” he added.

Hoyt and Aghion relied on mathematics to explain how creative destruction works, a key concept in economics that refers to the process by which new, useful innovations replace, and thus destroy, old technologies and firms. This concept is usually associated with economist Joseph Schumpeter, who explained it in his 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy.

Hoyt said he was looking forward to celebrating the win with his co-author Aghion. He said the pair had worked together for about 30 years.

“I’m really looking forward to getting together with him, to celebrate with our family,” he said. “We have kids all over North America, and we are looking forward to going to Sweden together.”

Aghion said he was shocked by this honor.

“I can’t find the words to express what I feel,” he said at a news conference in Stockholm via telephone. He said he would invest his prize money in his own research laboratory.

In response to a question about the current trade wars and protectionism in the world, Aghion said: “I do not welcome the protectionist approach in the United States that is not in the interest of… global growth and innovation.”

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Both economists have studied the mechanisms behind sustainable growth, including in a 1992 article in which they constructed a mathematical model of creative destruction.

Hewitt, 79, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from McGill University in Montreal and a master’s degree from Western University in London, Ontario. He is a professor of social sciences at Brown University in Rhode Island.

John Hassler, Chair of the Prize Committee in Economic Sciences, said: “The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted. We must support the mechanisms that underlie creative destruction, so that we do not return to stagnation.”

Half of the 11 million Swedish krona prize (about $1.2 million) goes to Mokyr and the other half is shared by Aghion and Howitt. Winners also receive an 18-karat gold medal and a diploma.

The Economics Prize is officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was established by the central bank in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.

Since then, it has been awarded 57 times to a total of 99 winners. Only three of the winners were women.

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