Philippe Aghion

Philippe Aghion is Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of Economics of Institutions, Innovation and Growth since 2015. He is also Professor at INSEAD and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. A Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is one of the founders of modern Schumpeterian growth theory.

Education: (Specific degrees not detailed in the text.)

Research Focus:

• Endogenous growth and innovation-driven development
• Competition, industrial policy and market structure
• Inequality, social mobility and education
• Green innovation and energy transition
• Macroeconomic policy and productivity dynamics

His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on creative destruction, green growth and firm-level innovation. 2024-2025 papers explore how technological turnover resets innovation cycles, how social skills shape wage growth for low-educated workers, and how supply-chain linkages affect the adoption of clean technologies. Earlier work examines the macroeconomic consequences of automation, the heterogeneous impact of export markets on R&D, and the anatomy of inequality in France.

Scientific Awards:

• Yrjö Jahnsson Prize (2001) – best European economist under 45
• John von Neumann Prize (2009)
• BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics (2020) – shared with Peter Howitt

Research Team & Grants: The Chair in the Economics of Institutions, Innovation and Growth brings together more than twenty researchers working on innovation, productivity, environmental economics and income mobility. The chair regularly hosts conferences and funds research assistants, indicating sustained external funding and institutional support.

Labs & Initiatives: The chair itself functions as an active research hub, organizing annual lecture series, policy round-tables (e.g., European competitiveness debates) and outreach to high-school innovation campuses.