Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“The main Nobel laureate in economics announced this morning is Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University. In his 2016 book, A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton University Press), Mokyr explored why economic growth started in the West (Northern Europe and its offshoots) at a rate that the world had never seen before. The explanation is not as simple as a straight connection from technological innovations to economic growth. In human history, episodes of scientific or technological advances were not typically followed by significant changes in the generalized poverty of ordinary people, including famously in China. To translate into economic growth, Mokyr explained, scientific discoveries need to be accompanied by a culture of growth, which in turn is generated by intellectual and economic entrepreneurship in open societies with fragmented political power.” (10/13/25)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/from-the-republic-of-letters-to-the