It seemed serendipitous to me that the economic historian Joel Mokyr was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences while I was in London several weeks ago. I have long been of the opinion that there are too many formulas and not enough historical understanding in the field of economics and Professor Mokyr is a deserving recipient of this high honor.
I have had a particular fondness for him since reading his 2009 book The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britian 1700-1850. Among the many insights in his work is how growth and prosperity cannot result solely from natural resources, colonial possessions, or technological achievement. Rather, he focuses on the unique success of Britian's Industrial Revolution to demonstrate that the nation's openness to Enlightenment ideas allowed it to succeed where competitors with material advantages failed. Mokyr writes that "in their different ways, the experience of Latin America and Russia have demonstrated to the world that access to modern science and technology without first changing the institutions that set incentives and define the rules of the economic game will not inevitably lead to the kind of economic growth experienced by the richest industrialized countries. The Enlightenment thus created a synergy of two sets of transformation that supported and reinforced each other." *
Lately, I have become fatigued by the many economists in the journals that I read who argue that their charts and graphs prove how the anxiety and hardship that so many feel is not real. If only they could understand a particular formula, struggling families would understand just how good they have it.
The next time that I read this, and that might be tomorrow, I shall take consolation in the fact that it is the enlightened Joel Mokyr who won the prize.
If you want to read more about Professor Mokyr, here is a link to the announcement at Northwestern University: https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/10/joel-mokyr-wins-nobel-prize-in-economics
* Joel Mokyr, The Enlightened Economy : An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 78.