Phillipe Aghion | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Aghion atBoston University in February 2015 | |
| Born | Philippe Mario Aghion (1956-08-17)17 August 1956 (age 69) |
| Known for | Aghion–Howitt model Endogenous growth theory Creative destruction |
| Relatives | Gaby Aghion (mother) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | École normale supérieure de Cachan (BA) Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University (DEA,D3C) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Innovation Economic growth Organisations Contract theory |
| School or tradition | Neo-Schumpeterian economics[1] |
| Institutions | Collège de France INSEAD London School of Economics Harvard University University College London Nuffield College, Oxford Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Awards | BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2019) Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2025) |
Philippe Mario Aghion[2]FBA (French:[filipaɡjɔ̃]; born 17 August 1956)[3] is a Frencheconomist who is Chair of Economics of Institutions, Innovation and Growth professor at theCollège de France and the Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor in Innovation and Growth atINSEAD.[4] He is also a visiting professor at theLondon School of Economics.[4][5]
Aghion andPeter Howitt are known for theAghion–Howitt model. For this work, they shared half of the 2025Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for the theory of sustained growth throughcreative destruction".[6]
Philippe Aghion was born in Paris in 1956,[7] he is the son ofGaby Aghion,[8] a French fashion designer and founder of the French fashion houseChloé.[8] Gaby is said to have coined the phraseprêt-à-porter.[9][8] His father, Raymond Aghion, had anart gallery inBoulevard Saint-Germain.[10] Both his parents are fromJewish families fromAlexandria, Egypt.[10] They later moved toParis, in theQuartier latin before buying a house inNeuilly-sur-Seine.[10] In an interview, Aghion recalled that he grew up surrounded by artists, includingKarl Lagerfeld.[8]
Aghion graduated from the mathematics section of theÉcole normale supérieure de Cachan (nowENS Paris-Saclay,University of Paris-Saclay), and obtained adiplôme d'études approfondies and adoctorat de troisième cycle (third cycle doctorate) inmathematical economics from theUniversité Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.[11] He received hisPhD in economics fromHarvard University in 1987.[11]
Aghion began his academic career in 1987 when he joined theMassachusetts Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor.[11] In 1989 he returned to France and became a researcher at theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).[11] In 1990, he was appointed Deputy Chief Economist of theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),[11] before moving to theNuffield College, Oxford and thenUniversity College London in 1996.[11] In 2002, he returned to Harvard where he became the Robert C. Waggoner Professor in Economics, a chair he held until 2015 when he was named Centennial Professor of Economics at theLondon School of Economics (LSE).[12][11]
In 2015, as he became professor at LSE, Aghion was also appointed Chair of Economics atCollege de France, a special academic institution in France. Statutory chair professorship at College de France is a position highly regarded among French academia.[13]
In 2020, Aghion became The Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor in Innovation and Growth atINSEAD and the academic director of INSEAD’s Economics of Innovation Lab. That year, he became visiting professor at LSE and continued to be an associate at LSE's Centre for Economic Performance.[14]
Aghion was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009[15] and he is a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee (ESC) ofCERGE-EI.[16][17] He was president of theEuropean Economic Association in 2017.[18] He has been an editor of theAnnual Review of Economics since 2018.[19]
Ahead of the2012 French presidential election, Aghion co-signed an appeal of several economists in support of candidateFrançois Hollande.[20]
In 2016, Aghion was appointed byUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon to an expert group advising the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, which was co-chaired by presidentsFrançois Hollande ofFrance andJacob Zuma ofSouth Africa.[21] In 2021, he was appointed to theWorld Bank–International Monetary Fund High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth, co-chaired byMari Pangestu,Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, andNicholas Stern.[22]
Additional advisory activities include:
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In 1992, together withPeter Howitt, he proposed a foundational model of Schumpeterianendogenous growth theory,[25][26] centered on innovation andcreative destruction.
In the 2000s, he to explored the links between competition, institutions, and growth, notably the inverted-U relationship between competition intensity and innovation.[27]
AOC Media has criticized Aghion for techno-optimism, an attachment to GDP growth as the headline indicator, and a limited understanding of the contemporary multi-factor environmental crisis.[28]
According toUfuk Akcigit, the framework developed by Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt in their 1992 article[25] revolutionized the analysis of endogenous economic growth dynamics by enabling back-and-forth between theory and firm-level data, which explains the model’s prominence in the economic literature. Their approach is characterized by the introduction of the Schumpeterian mechanism of “creative destruction,” whereby innovations render old technologies obsolete (the “business-stealing” effect) and govern firm entry and exit. Innovation effort is a response to firms’ pursuit of rents. These rents act as a carrot and creative destruction as a stick; however, when rents become too large, they allow dominant firms to erect barriers to entry. At the same time, the motivation to innovate fades, and growth can slow when the stick is gone and the carrot already secured. It is notably the incorporation of firm heterogeneity that marks the originality of this paradox, allowing the study of growth dynamics depending on whether firms are small or large, incumbents or entrants, at the technological frontier or in an imitator position.[29][page needed]
Philippe Aghion has also contributed to the analysis of the “middle-income trap,” referring to the difficulty some emerging economies face in crossing the threshold to advanced-economy status. In his view,[30] growth driven by capital accumulation and technological imitation first enables rapid catch-up but reaches its limits as countries approach the technological frontier.[27]
Philippe Aghion led a working group of ten international experts[31] whose work initially focused on an international comparison of university autonomy, and then on the implementation of campuses of academic excellence (Initiative d'excellence [fr]).[31] A two-part report was submitted in January 2010 to the Minister of Higher EducationValérie Pécresse.[31]
This report recommended establishing "balanced governance" in universities. Drawing on the examples of Harvard, MIT, Oxford, or Cambridge, it acknowledged that there is no single governance model.[32]
It proposed the creation of two governing bodies at the head of universities. The first, the board of directors, would be composed mostly of external members, who would appoint a president with extensive powers. The second would be embodied in an "academic senate", a genuine forum for scientific and pedagogical proposals.[32]
As a student in France, he was a communist sympathizer.[33]
During the2012 French presidential election, he signed the appeal of economists supporting candidateFrançois Hollande because of "the relevance of the proposed options, in particular with regard to the recovery of growth and employment".[34] In 2017, he expressed his support forEmmanuel Macron.[35]
In 2019, Aghion andPeter Howitt received theBBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics.[37] He and Howitt were also awarded half of theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2025 "for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction", the other half going toJoel Mokyr.[7]
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