This year the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Joel Mokyr, for “having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress”, and to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, for their theory of sustained growth through “creative destruction”.
This recognition sends a clear and, above all, current message: in modern societies, Growth does not spring spontaneously from capital or labor, but from the continuous process of innovation and replacement of old technologies for new ones. Aghion and Howitt modeled how the most innovative companies displace the least efficient ones, generating growth, but also labor and distribution frictions. Mokyr, for his part, emphasized that for this process to work, institutions open to change, a culture favorable to experimentation and a fluid interaction between science and technology are needed. Without this institutional requirement, innovation slows down and growth is diluted.. From this perspective, the 2025 Nobel is aligned with that of 2024, which was awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson precisely for their contributions on the role of institutions for growth and development.
Argentina clearly embodies the reverse of that logic. Our country’s problem is not a lack of talent or entrepreneurial capacity. Decades of macroeconomic instability, erratic regulations and a State that often stifles rather than encourages have eroded innovation. Instead of dynamic competition, defensive survival predominates.
The message of Nobel 2025 is forceful: there is no growth without technological renewal, and productivity It is not promoted by decree. Requires an ecosystem that combines knowledge, financing and rules predictable game play. What does this imply in terms of public policies? Three very specific needs:
1.Create an institutional environment that rewards innovation. Macroeconomic stability and genuine competition are prerequisites. Without a foreseeable horizon, the rational businessman postpones investments, and without competition, productivity does not improve.
2.Articulate science, technology and business. Argentina invests 0.5% of GDP in R&D, but with low coordination and limited results. This investment needs to be transformed into concrete projects: linking universities and startups with key productive sectors, from agribusiness to energy.
3.Accompany the productive transition. Innovating involves replacing practices, jobs and companies. Without policies for job reconversion, continuous training and social mobility, resistance to change blocks transformation.
Today, the challenge is not to discover what to do, but to dare to do it. Sectors such as software, biotechnology or energy show that Argentina can compete when it combines knowledge with ambition. But to scale that potential We need a State that promotes and not only administers; a business community that bets, not takes refuge; and an educational system that trains for changenot for stability.
Argentine growth has historically been cyclical and low productivity. The true rupture will not only come from a stabilization plan, but from a cultural and organizational change: going from protecting what exists to promoting what is emerging. Prosperity arises when societies learn to replace the old with the new without fear of losing balance.
The research of Aghion, Howitt and Mokyr takes on renewed relevance in times of artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated structural change. His theories help understand the challenges that economies face when new technologies completely transform the organization of work and competition. In this context, the Nobel message is especially pertinent for Argentina: The impact of AI and automation will not depend so much on its speed of adoption as on the institutional capacity of the country to absorb and multiply its benefits. If innovation finds an unstable ecosystem, without clear rules or incentives for investment in knowledge, the effects will be ambiguous. But with institutions that encourage experimentation, learning and competition, AI can become a lever to close technological gaps and reconfigure entire sectors of the Argentine economy.
The 2025 Nobel Prize remembers that countries that manage to grow sustainably not only control their macro variables, but also cultivate an economic culture open to change. In Argentina, that is the pending leap: going from stabilizing what exists to building a model that makes innovation a permanent source of growth and well-being.
by Lucas Pussetto
