The Wheeler Institute is delighted to welcome Philippe Aghion, recent Nobel Laureate and one of the world’s foremost thinkers on innovation-led economic growth, to London Business School. The event will take place on February 9, 2026, and it will be the inaugural event of a limited series of conversations on Public Policy in the Age of Innovation.
Philippe Aghion is the Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor of Innovation and Growth at INSEAD and a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. His work has fundamentally shaped contemporary thinking on the relationship between innovation, competition, institutions, and long-run economic growth. In his recent Nobel Lecture on Economics and Creative Destruction, Aghion explored some of the most pressing challenges facing modern economies, from the middle-income trap and structural transformation to the role of flexicurity and institutional design in sustaining inclusive growth.
This event will situate these ideas within the broader debate on how capitalism must evolve to respond to today’s economic, social and technological pressures. Drawing on decades of influential research and policy engagement, Philippe Aghion will reflect on how innovation-driven growth models can be reconciled with social cohesion, resilience and opportunity.
The conversation will explore Aghion’s research on creative destruction alongside today’s “guns and butter” trade-offs, from defence spending and innovation to public investment in areas such as health and education, concluding with a discussion about the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and potential lessons for Europe.
The event will be opened by Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics and Dean of LBS, and moderated by Paolo Surico, Professor of Economics at LBS.
Date and time: Monday 9th February 18:30 GMT
Location: LT18 & 19, Sammy Ofer Centre, London Business School and on Zoom
Speaker
Philippe Aghion is the Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor of Innovation and Growth at INSEAD and a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. He is a 2025 Nobel Prize laureate in Economic Sciences, awarded jointly with Joel Mokyr and Peter Howitt for their work on innovation-driven economic growth. He is also a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has held academic appointments at institutions including Harvard University, University College London, and the Collège de France.
Professor Aghion has served as an advisor to governments and international organisations, contributing to policy debates on growth, innovation, competition policy, and institutional reform in both advanced and emerging economies. His research lies at the intersection of economic growth, innovation, and development, with a particular focus on the role of competition, institutions, and financial systems in fostering sustained and inclusive growth. He is best known for his foundational contributions to the theory of innovation-driven growth and creative destruction, and his recent work addresses topics including the middle-income trap, industrial policy, education, inequality, climate change, and designing capitalism for long-term resilience and social cohesion.
Moderator
Paolo Surico is Professor of Economics at London Business School. His research focuses on public policies for innovation, including public R&D, government-funded and defence-related innovation, and the role of corporate taxation in shaping firms’ innovative activity and economic performance. He has also made influential contributions to research on monetary policy, inequality, and the redistributive effects of interest rate changes and quantitative easing. His work is widely published in leading academic journals and is characterised by rigorous empirical analysis and strong policy relevance. He has extensive experience advising policymakers, including consultancy for the European Commission and the European Central Bank, and past advisory roles with the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority. His research has influenced the conduct of monetary policy and the design of fiscal policy across Europe.
About the Series
Public Policy in the Age of Innovation is a Wheeler Institute limited series, led by Paolo Surico, Professor of Economics at LBS. In a series of three events, Paolo will explore in conversation how innovation, public policy, and institutions can adapt to the economic, technological, and social challenges of our time. Each conversation will invite leading scholars and policymakers and the next event will take place on March 20, 2026, with Stefanie Stantcheva, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard and founder and director of the Social Economics Lab – more details about the event will be shared at the Wheeler Institute webpage and blog in due time.