What are the principles that drive human progress?
Northwestern University economics professor Dr. Joel Mokyr has spent his career contemplating this question, and he recently was co-awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences for his work. More specifically, Mokyr was awarded the prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress.”
As Mokyr told the Charles Koch Foundation in a 2022 interview, one of those prerequisites, or principles, is openness.
“[You] need a society that’s open to innovation; one that encourages people to go where others haven’t gone,” said Mokyr. “Innovation is risky. Out of 100 ideas, 99 are wrong or don’t work. You need people who are willing to be wrong, and you need a society where people aren’t threatened if they go against the ruling orthodoxy. One of the most important things in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries was that scholars were willing to challenge Aristotle and other classical philosophers whose ideas were, at that time, regarded as gospel. Intellectual ancestor worship, the idea that previous generations were smarter and knew more, impedes progress. The oldest is not necessarily the best.”
National Public Radio focused on the principle of openness in its story about Mokyr’s prize.
In the wake of the prize announcement, colleagues praised Mokyr’s scholarship and his commitment to exploring the principles that drive human progress.
“Joel reminds us that cultural commitment to tolerance, to academic freedom, and to internationalism are the preconditions for our economy,” Adrian Randolph, dean of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, told Northwestern Now. “These values, upheld within institutions like our university, which depend on pluralism and rationality, are the building blocks for many of the advances that stream through successful markets and societies. These values are worth underscoring as we celebrate our colleague and friend.”
The Economist also praised the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ decision, arguing that economic historians like Mokyr provide essential scholarship that demonstrates that re-dedicating ourselves to the principles of human progress is key to finding a path back to growth.
“Understanding recent events, including the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the COVID-19 pandemic, is near-impossible without an appreciation of economic history,” The Economist editors wrote. “Knowing how governments of the past dealt with crashes and plagues helps us better deal with contemporary ones.”
Read our interview with Joel Mokyr.