Joel Mokyr

Joel Mokyr is an Israeli-American economic historian whose pioneering work bridges economics, history, and technological and intellectual progress evolution. His scholarship has profoundly shaped our understanding of how ideas and institutions drive long-term economic growth.

Mokyr was born on July 26, 1946, in Leiden, the Netherlands, to a Dutch-Jewish family that survived the Holocaust. He was raised in Haifa, Israel, where his upbringing instilled a deep awareness of Jewish resilience and the transformative power of knowledge. He earned a B.A. in economics and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968, followed by an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1972 and 1974, respectively.

After completing his doctorate, Mokyr joined Northwestern University, where he has taught since 1974. Rising through the ranks from assistant to full professor, he became the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History. He also holds a long-standing appointment as Sackler Professor at Tel Aviv University’s Eitan Berglas School of Economics.

Mokyr has served as chair of Northwestern’s economics department, senior editor of the Journal of Economic History (1994–1998), and editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History (2003) and Princeton University Press’s Economic History of the Western World series. He is a director of the National Bureau of Economic Research and chairs the advisory committee of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s Institutions, Organizations, and Growth program.

Mokyr’s research explores the intersection of technological innovation, cultural change, and economic progress. He is best known for challenging deterministic explanations of industrialization by emphasizing the role of knowledge and ideas. His major works include:

Why Ireland Starved (1983)
The Lever of Riches (1990)
The Gifts of Athena (2002)
The Enlightened Economy (2009)
A Culture of Growth (2016)

In A Culture of Growth, Mokyr argued that Europe’s scientific and intellectual environment during the Enlightenment fostered experimentation and innovation, creating the foundation for modern economic growth. His approach combines quantitative analysis with cultural and institutional history, applying insights from evolutionary theory to explain how knowledge evolves and accumulates over time.

Mokyr has received numerous international honors, including the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for History (2006) and the International Balzan Prize for Economic History (2015) for connecting economics and epistemological theory with the development of technology and knowledge. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and the British Academy.

In 2025, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Mokyr the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, shared with Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth.” The Nobel committee praised Mokyr for identifying the intellectual and institutional preconditions for sustained technological progress.

A dual citizen of the United States and Israel, Mokyr continues to influence academic and public discourse on the origins of prosperity. His cross-disciplinary approach and frequent teaching in Israeli universities underscore his enduring ties to Jewish intellectual traditions and the pursuit of knowledge as a means of societal advancement.

Sources: “Joel Mokyr,” Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)
“Joel Mokyr,” International Balzan Prize Foundation.
“Joel Mokyr,” Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies Harvard.
“Joel Mokyr,” Northwestern University Department of History.
“Nobel Prize Dialogue - Joel Mokyr,” Nobel Prize, (May 18 , 2021).
“Why Joel Mokyr Deserves His Nobel Prize,” Economist, (October 13, 2025).
Sharon Wrobel, “Israeli-American among three awarded Nobel Prize in Economics,” Times of Israel, (October 13, 2025).

Photo: Joel Mokyr, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.