JP Pawliw-Fry
Co-Founder, Institute for Health and Human Potential | NY Times Bestselling Author of Performing Under Pressure | Host, Last 8% Morning Podcast
Joel Mokyr
2025 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences | Robert H. Strotz Professor, Northwestern University | Economic Historian of Innovation & Growth
Joel Mokyr is a 2025 Nobel Laureate and one of the world's foremost economic historians, celebrated for showing how ideas, culture, and institutions ignite long-term growth. His research traces how the free flow of useful knowledge sparked the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the modern economy. With wit and sweeping historical perspective, he connects three centuries of innovation to debates on AI, the future of work, and sustained prosperity.
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Joel Mokyr biography
Nobel Prize speaker Joel Mokyr is one of the world’s most distinguished economic historians, celebrated for his pioneering research into how ideas, culture, and institutions shape long-term prosperity and technological progress. Born in the Netherlands and raised in Israel, he has devoted his career to bridging economics and history, showing how societies move from stagnation to sustained growth by transforming the way they value, produce, and share knowledge.
Mokyr’s work has reshaped our understanding of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the modern economy. In books such as A Culture of Growth and his recent Two Paths to Prosperity, he argues that prosperity emerges when societies cultivate a culture of growth that rewards innovation, tolerates dissent, and encourages the free exchange of useful knowledge. He identifies useful knowledge, mechanical competence, and open institutions as the essential ingredients that allow breakthroughs to transform entire economies.
From the Industrial Revolution to the age of AI
Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, Mokyr has earned numerous honors for his contributions to economic history. The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences recognized his demonstration of the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress. Together with his fellow laureates, his work links historical experience to modern growth theory, revealing the conditions under which innovation can be sustained rather than stalled.
As a speaker, Joel Mokyr brings history vividly to life with clarity, wit, and a deep sense of relevance. He connects the Industrial Revolution to today’s digital and AI revolutions, showing how ideas, and the people and institutions that support them, shape the trajectory of economies. His message is ultimately optimistic and grounded in evidence: progress is never guaranteed, but societies that protect openness, invest in knowledge, and embrace innovation build the foundations for lasting prosperity and human flourishing.
Joel Mokyr Speaking Videos
Joel Mokyr - The Growth of Useful Knowledge
Joel Mokyr - Technology and Work: Is the Long-run Getting Shorter?
Joel Mokyr Keynote Topics
In this keynote, Mokyr reflects on the reasons the Nobel committee honoured him: for showing how growth emerges not just from machines or capital, but from a society's capacity for knowledge creation, scientific curiosity and institutional flexibility. He connects those insights to today's challenges, climate change, demographic shifts and the AI revolution, and offers a roadmap for how societies can harness innovation while managing disruption.
In this keynote, Joel Mokyr examines how curiosity, science and institutional openness converged to spark the Industrial Revolution, and how the accumulative growth of useful knowledge laid the foundations for modern economic growth. Audiences gain a deep understanding of why some societies made the leap into sustained growth while others remained stagnant.
Drawing on his research and public lectures, Mokyr explores the origins of capitalism, tracing how the Enlightenment, scientific culture, and shifts in values and institutions allowed Europe to become the cradle of the modern economy. A historical journey that helps explain why and how capitalism, and not just markets or capital accumulation, became the engine of growth.
In a world where technological change accelerates, Mokyr examines the implications for labor, productivity and social welfare. Using historical perspective, he shows how industrial revolutions unfolded over decades, but warns that today's transformations might compress those dynamics into years or even months. He prompts audiences to rethink training, institutions and social policy accordingly.
Rather than predicting doom, this talk offers an optimistic, evidence-based vision of how technological progress reshapes job markets, skills and human creativity. Mokyr argues that as technology evolves, so do opportunities for learning, adaptation and growth, provided societies remain open, flexible and supportive of human capital.
Drawing on his long-term comparative research, Mokyr examines how cultural pluralism, exchange of ideas, and institutional tolerance have historically contributed to technological breakthroughs and economic development. The talk encourages leaders to view diversity not as a challenge, but as a strategic advantage in innovation-driven growth.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Joel Mokyr
Why Joel Mokyr?
Joel Mokyr is the rare economist who reads the present through three centuries of history, and makes it electrifying. A 2025 Nobel Laureate, he explains why some societies broke into sustained growth while others stalled, and what that means for an age of AI and rapid technological change. On stage he pairs rigorous scholarship with storytelling, wit, and an optimism grounded firmly in evidence, leaving audiences with a long-run framework for thinking about innovation and prosperity. Book Joel Mokyr through Aurum Speakers Bureau to give your audience genuine intellectual depth.
What did Joel Mokyr win the Nobel Prize for?
Mokyr received half of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for identifying the prerequisites of sustained economic growth through technological progress. His work shows that lasting growth depends not only on capital and machines but on useful knowledge, mechanical competence, and institutions that are open to innovation and dissent. He shared the prize with Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt.
What does Joel Mokyr speak about?
Mokyr's keynotes range across the origins of modern prosperity, the growth of useful knowledge, the future of work, and how culture and openness drive innovation. He connects the lessons of the Industrial Revolution to today's AI revolution with clarity and optimism. To check his availability and shape a keynote for your event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
How to book Joel Mokyr as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Joel Mokyr as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Joel Mokyr's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Joel Mokyr or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Joel Mokyr speaking fee?
Joel Mokyr speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Joel Mokyr to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Joel Mokyr.
How can I contact Joel Mokyr?
We only work with Joel Mokyr on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Joel Mokyr and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Joel Mokyr speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Joel Mokyr for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Joel Mokyr for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Joel Mokyr is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Joel Mokyr for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
