In a research article published in 1992, Howitt and Aghion constructed a mathematical model for what is called creative destruction: when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out. The innovation represents something new and is thus creative. However, it is also destructive, as the company whose technology becomes passé is outcompeted.

“In some societies, people who are part of status quo and very successful based on previous technologies gain political power and influence, and are able to arrange things so that it’s very difficult for new technologies to displace them,” Howitt said. “That helps to protect their interests, but also inhibits economic growth [and] stops new technologies from being implemented. This is a conflict between new and old that is a central concept of economic growth. Philippe and I managed to find simple ways to formulate those ideas mathematically.”

From early inspiration to Brown's third Nobel laureate

Howitt is the third Nobel laureate from the Brown faculty. He joins the late Leon Cooper, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972 for developing a theory of superconductivity; and J. Michael Kosterlitz, who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Howitt’s earliest inspiration for a career in economics came during a part-time high school job working for a business owner in Ontario who imported wool to sell to textile mills in Canada. He recalled a teletype machine in the office that showed the prices of different types of wool from across the world. 

“I would ask him, what's going on with these prices?” Howitt recalled. “Why do they keep going up and down? He started to explain something about supply and demand, and that sounded really interesting. He is the one who told me that if you really want to understand this, you have to go study economics… I was fascinated by watching this very small, but highly successful business.” 

Throughout a long academic career focused on macroeconomics, that early excitement never waned. 

“I never turned back from that original question that I asked of my boss back when I was about 18 years old,” Howitt said. “Why are these prices going up and down? I have just been curious ever since and very privileged to have spent my life doing what I really love to do.”

Howitt called Brown’s collaborative academic environment ideal for supporting high-impact research.

“Brown provided just a spectacularly helpful atmosphere for me…” Howitt said. “Several of my colleagues at Brown are among the leaders in [the study of] economic growth, and I learned a lot from interactions with them. You learn as much from your students and colleagues very often as you do from your own research. Sharing ideas in an open environment like Brown’s was extremely valuable for our research. The University provided me with a lot of opportunities and research funds, and the students at Brown were extremely stimulating.”

Kareen Rozen, chair of Brown’s Department of Economics, praised Howitt’s groundbreaking scholarship in innovation and economic growth and his many contributions to teaching and research at Brown.

“The Department of Economics is delighted with the wonderful news that Peter Howitt has been recognized with the Nobel economics prize,” Rozen said. “Peter was prolific at Brown, with over 40 articles published since he joined, as well as his illustrious 2009 book ‘The Economics of Growth,’ which synthesized his prize-winning work.”

Rozen celebrated Howitt’s accomplished legacy as an adviser and teacher, in addition to his contributions as a member of a world-class group of economics scholars at Brown.

“He was deeply committed to graduate education at Brown, and before his retirement in 2013, Peter was a beloved and productive adviser who coauthored articles with multiple graduate students,” Rozen said. “Even after his retirement, Peter continued to teach in the graduate program. Brown’s Department of Economics is proud to have an intellectual environment that attracted and fostered the work of such a creative scholar as Peter.”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that in different ways, the 2025 economics laureates show how creative destruction creates conflicts that must be managed in a constructive manner. Otherwise, innovation will be blocked by established companies and interest groups that risk being put at a disadvantage.

“The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted,” said John Hassler, chair of the committee for the prize in economic sciences. “We must uphold the mechanisms that [underlie] creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation.”

Howitt, who was born in Canada, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at McGill University in 1968, and a master’s in economics the following year at the University of Western Ontario, before moving to the United States to complete a Ph.D. at Northwestern University. From 1972 to 1996 he taught at the University of Western Ontario, combining his work there with visiting positions at Laval University in Quebec, as well as in France, at Paris and Toulouse universities, and in the U.S. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1996, Howitt moved to Ohio State University, before joining the faculty at Brown University in 2000. He has held editorial positions with many leading economics journals and been granted multiple honorary doctorates.