HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — Peter Howitt, who modeled the theory of Creative Destruction, has been one of the world’s leading economists for years, so the idea that he would be considered for a Nobel Prize wasn’t outlandish.
But when Howitt, a member at Champion Hills and an avid golfer, went to bed on the evening of Oct. 9, he didn’t even bother turning his phone on.
“It had run out of juice, and I figured it wasn’t going to be me,” Howitt said of his phone and the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Prize winners. “Then my wife’s phone started ringing off the hook, even though it was on Do Not Disturb.”
When she answered her phone after 6 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 10, it wasn’t the Nobel Committee calling. It was an enterprising Swedish journalist calling for comment from the 79-year-old economist, just awakening in his home in the hills of western North Carolina, on winning the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
For Howitt, the honor was both surreal and deeply affirming. He shares the 2025 Nobel Prize with his longtime collaborator Philippe Aghion, recognizing their pioneering work on the theory of creative destruction, the process by which innovation drives growth, while simultaneously rendering older industries and technologies obsolete.
From Theory to Real-World Relevance
At its core, Howitt and Aghion’s model explains how technological progress fuels long-term prosperity, not just by making economies more productive, but by fundamentally reshaping them.
“We grow richer over the long run because of technological progress,” Howitt said. “It allows us to do things we never dreamed of before, and to do them more efficiently.”
But, as their research shows, that progress comes with conflict. “New technologies spread benefits to many, but they also destroy livelihoods that depend on the old ones,” he explained. “The steam engine displaced handloom weavers. Kodak was undone by the digital camera.”
That tension – between innovation and disruption – has made Howitt’s work newly resonant in an age defined by automation and now even AI anxiety.
A Partnership Born at MIT
Howitt traces the roots of this work back to 1987, when he was a visiting professor at MIT and Aghion had just joined the faculty fresh from his Ph.D. at Harvard. “He was a microeconomist and I was a macroeconomist,” Howitt recalled. “We came from different worlds, but we clicked right away.”
Their collaboration married Joseph Schumpeter’s 1942 concept of creative destruction with the mathematical precision needed to model it. “The idea wasn’t new,” Howitt says. “But nobody had captured it in a way that could be tested and applied. Philippe and I found a way to do that.”
The result was a framework that demonstrated how economic incentives, institutions, and even political resistance can influence the pace of innovation.
Shock, Joy, and a Nobel Call That Almost Didn’t Come
When the call from the Nobel Committee in Sweden finally came – nearly an hour after the official announcement – Howitt was still processing the flood of messages from around the world. “For the first day or so, it was just shock and confusion,” he says. “It was overwhelming, messages from people I hadn’t heard from in decades. My first thought was, ‘This has got to be a prank.’”
It wasn’t. Now, the retired Brown University professor is preparing for the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10, followed by the lavish banquet hosted by the King and Queen of Sweden. “It’s a white-tie affair,” he said. “There are events all week long – lectures, receptions, embassy gatherings.”
Life in the Hills – and a Return to Economics
Though he’s officially retired from teaching, Howitt admits the award has pulled him back into the world of economics as he prepares a public lecture to deliver in Sweden.
While Howitt, a native Canadian, has attracted worldwide attention, it’s life in Champion Hills, one of America’s premier private golf communities, that remains central to his happiness. “We love it here,” he says. “The people have been wonderful; it feels like I have this gigantic family all celebrating for me.”
Howitt and his wife originally discovered Champion Hills and Hendersonville as a summer escape from Florida’s heat. “We came up to get away for a few weeks and just fell in love with it,” he recalls. “We signed up for a golf membership and bought a house. We haven’t looked back.”
Even as invitations pour in from around the world, he insists he and his wife plan to keep their life as normal as possible. “Everyone tells me life before the Nobel and life after are two different things,” he says. “But we like our life before the prize. We’re going to do our best to keep it that way.”
For Howitt, the Nobel isn’t just a recognition of intellectual achievement, it’s a celebration of collaboration, curiosity, and endurance. “Philippe and I spent decades refining this model,” he says. “It’s rewarding to know that it’s helped people understand how economies evolve, and that progress, even when it’s disruptive, is at the heart of human advancement.”