Canadian economist Peter Howitt is among the group of three researchers who won this year's Nobel memorial prize in economics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Monday, that Howitt, along with Dutch-born Joel Mokyr and French Philippe Aghion, received the prize for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth."
Reached early Monday, Howitt said he was thrilled.
"It's just the dream of a lifetime come true," he said.
Howitt said he found out about the prize from a persistent Swedish reporter who dialled his wife's phone early in the morning, even before the committee could reach the economist.
By the time Howitt received his official notice from the committee, he already knew.
Howitt said his day was starting to look very different after the call.
"I'm going to be spending the day answering phone calls," he said.
"We didn't have any champagne in the fridge in anticipation of this," he added.
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Howitt and Aghion relied on mathematics to explain how creative destruction works, a key concept in economics that refers to the process in which beneficial new innovations replace — and thus destroy — older technologies and businesses.
Howitt said he was looking forward to celebrating the win with his co-author Aghion. The duo worked together for about 30 years, he said.
"I'm really looking forward to getting together with him, to celebrating with our family," he said. "We have children all around North America, and we look forward to going to Sweden together."
Both economists studied the mechanisms behind sustained growth, including in a 1992 article in which they constructed a mathematical model for creative destruction.
Howitt, 79, received his bachelor's degree in economics from Montreal's McGill University and his master's degree from the University of Western in London, Ontario. He is a professor of social sciences at Brown University in Rhode Island.
Howitt shared one half of the prize, nearly 1.6 million Canadian dollars, with Aghion, while the rest went to Mokyr.
