View source for Joel Mokyr

{{Short description|Economic historian (born 1946)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}}{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = <!-- see [[MOS:HONOURIFIC]] -->
| name = Joel Mokyr
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| image = Professor Joel Mokyr.jpg
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| native_name = יואל מוקיר
| native_name_lang = he
| birth_name = Joel Michael Mokyr <!-- use only if different from full/othernames -->
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1946|7|26|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Leiden]], Netherlands
| death_date = <!-- {{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
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| citizenship = {{hlist|[[Citizenship of the United States|American]]|[[Israeli nationality law|Israeli]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Meet Our Newest Board Member, Joel Mokyr |url=https://humanprogress.org/meet-our-newest-board-member-joel-mokyr/ |website=Human Progress |access-date=14 October 2025 |date=9 June 2020}}</ref>}}
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| awards = [[Heineken Prizes|Heineken Award for History]] (2006)<br />[[Balzan Prize]] (2015)<br />[[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences]] (2025)
| website = 
| education = [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Yale University]] ([[MPhil]], [[PhD]])
| thesis_title = Industrial Growth and Stagnation in the Low Countries, 1800–1850
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| thesis_year = 1974
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| discipline = [[Economic history]]
| sub_discipline = <!--academic discipline specialist area – e.g. Sub-atomic research, 20th Century Danish specialist, Pauline research, Arcadian and Ugaritic specialist-->
| workplaces = [[Northwestern University]]
| doctoral_students = [[Avner Greif]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Greif|first=Avner|year=1991|title=The Organization of Long-Distance Trade: Reputation and Coalitions in the Geniza Documents and Genoa During the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries|journal=[[Journal of Economic History]] |volume=51 |issue =2| page=459|doi=10.1017/S0022050700039097|s2cid=154791174 }}</ref>
| notable_students = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| main_interests = [[Economic history of Europe]]
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| influenced = [[Cormac Ó Gráda]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1=de Bromhead|first1=Alan|title=An Interview with Cormac Ó Gráda|journal=The Newsletter of the Cliometric Society|date=Winter 2017|volume=31|issue=2|pages=20–23|url=http://cliometrics.org/newsletters/Volume-31/Volume-31-Number-2-Winter-2017.pdf|access-date=27 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724085657/http://www.cliometrics.org/newsletters/Volume-31/Volume-31-Number-2-Winter-2017.pdf|archive-date=24 July 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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}}

'''Joel Michael Mokyr'''<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Joel Michael Mokyr |url=https://www.dutchjewry.org/genealogy/mok/39.shtml |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=www.dutchjewry.org}}</ref> ({{langx|he|יואל מיכאל מוקיר}}; born 26 July 1946<ref>{{cite web|title=Joel Mokyr|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2025/mokyr/facts/|website=Nobel Foundation}}</ref>) is an American and Israeli [[economic historian]] who has been a professor of economics and history and the [[Robert H. Strotz|{{Nobr|Robert H. Strotz}}]] Professor of Arts and Sciences at [[Northwestern University]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Joel Mokyr |url=https://www.beloit.edu/live/profiles/544-joel-mokyr |access-date=13 October 2025 |website=Beloit College |language=en}}</ref> He has also been the Sackler Professorial Fellow at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at [[Tel Aviv University]].<ref name=":3" /> He was awarded half a share of the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] in 2025 "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress."<ref name="nobel">{{Cite web |work=The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |date=13 October 2025 |title=The Prize in Economic Sciences 2025 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/press-economicsciencesprize2025.pdf }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Joel Mokyr was born in [[Leiden]], Netherlands, in 1946.<ref name="nobel" /> He was born into a family of [[History of the Jews in the Netherlands|Dutch Jews]] who had survived the [[Holocaust]].<ref name=":0" /> His father Salomon Mok,<ref name=":4" /> a civil servant, died of cancer when Mokyr was one year old.<ref name=":0" /> He immigrated to [[Israel]] as a child with his mother Gunda Mok (née Jakobs),<ref name=":4" /> and grew up in [[Haifa]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url =https://www.wsj.com/articles/economists-duel-over-idea-that-technology-will-save-the-world-1402886301|title=Economists Debate: Has All the Important Stuff Already Been Invented?|last=Aeppel|first=Timothy|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref> He received a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in economics and history from the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] in 1968.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Joel Mokyr wins Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences |url=https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/10/joel-mokyr-wins-nobel-prize-in-economics |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=news.northwestern.edu |language=en}}</ref> He then received an [[Master of Philosophy|M.Phil.]] in economics from [[Yale University]] in 1972, and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale in 1974.<ref name=":6" /> His dissertation was titled ''Industrial Growth and Stagnation in the Low Countries, 1800–1850''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mokyr |first=Joel |url=https://search.library.yale.edu/catalog/9932132453408651?block=Books |title=Industrial Growth and Stagnation in the Low Countries, 1800–1850 |date=1974}}</ref>

==Career==
Mokyr was an acting instructor at [[Yale University]] between 1972 and 1973, and became an [[assistant professor]] at [[Northwestern University]] in 1974, where he has remained ever since.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Jang |first=Jaeha |last2=Boiskin |first2=Asher |date=14 October 2025 |title=Yale graduate wins economics Nobel Prize for studying economic growth |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/10/14/yale-graduate-wins-economics-nobel-prize-for-studying-economic-growth/ |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=Yale Daily News |language=en}}</ref>  

He has been the editor-in-chief of the Princeton Economic History of the Western World (a book series published by [[Princeton University Press]]), and was a co-editor of the ''[[Journal of Economic History]]''.<ref name=":6" /> He was the President of the [[Economic History Association]] from 2002 to 2003.<ref name="PastPresident">{{cite web | title=EHA Society of Fellows – EH.net | website=EH.net – PRESERVING THE PAST, ILLUMINATING THE PRESENT, SHAPING THE FUTURE | url=https://eh.net/eha-society-of-fellows/ | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref>

==''A Culture of Growth''==
Mokyr presents his explanations for the [[Industrial Revolution]] in the 2016 book ''A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy''. The book has received positive reviews. [[Deirdre McCloskey]] described it as a "brilliant book...  It's long, but consistently interesting, even witty. It sustains interest right down to page 337... The book is not beach reading. But you will finish it impressively learned about how we got to where we are in the modern world." In her review, McCloskey furthermore lauded Mokyr as a "[[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel]]-worthy economic scientist".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Economic history: ideas that built the world |url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/ideas-that-built-the-world-joel-mokyr-liberalism |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508081836/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/ideas-that-built-the-world-joel-mokyr-liberalism |archive-date=8 May 2021 |access-date=11 March 2017 |website=www.prospectmagazine.co.uk}}</ref>

In a review published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', [[J. Bradford DeLong|Brad DeLong]] found that while he favored other explanations for the Industrial Revolution, "I would not be greatly surprised if I were wrong, and Mokyr's brief...turned out to be the most broadly correct analysis...''A Culture of Growth'' is certainly making me rethink."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeLong |first=Brad |author-link=James Bradford DeLong |date=27 October 2016 |title=Economic history: The roots of growth |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |language=en |volume=538 |issue=7626 |pages=456–57 |bibcode=2016Natur.538..456D |doi=10.1038/538456a |issn=0028-0836 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Cambridge economic historian [[Victoria Bateman]] wrote, "In pointing to growth-boosting factors that go beyond either the state or the market, Mokyr's book is very welcome. It could also feed into discussions about the scientific community post-[[Brexit]]. By reviving the focus on culture it will, however, prove controversial, particularly among economists."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/review-a-culture-of-growth-joel-mokyr-princeton-university-press|title=A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, by Joel Mokyr|date=6 October 2016|work=Times Higher Education|access-date=11 March 2017}}</ref> An article in ''[[The Economist]]'' pointed out that a fine definitional distinction had to be considered between "culture as ideas, socially learned" and "culture as inheritance transmitted genetically".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/07/25/a-societys-values-and-beliefs-matter-for-its-economy|title=A society's values and beliefs matter for its economy|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=24 July 2019}}</ref> The book has also been reviewed favorably by [[Diane Coyle]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/982f6108-95f1-11e6-a1dc-bdf38d484582|title=A Culture of Growth by Joel Mokyr — why did the Industrial Revolution happen?|newspaper=Financial Times|date=21 October 2016 |access-date=11 March 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Foreign Affairs|''Foreign Affairs'']],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2016-12-08/culture-capitalism|title=The Culture of Capitalism|last=Vries|first=Peer|date=10 December 2016|work=Foreign Affairs|access-date=11 March 2017|issn=0015-7120}}</ref> [[The Independent|''The Independent'']],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1267|title=Book Review: A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, by Joel Mokyr|website=The Independent Institute|access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref> and the [[Journal of Economic Literature|''Journal of Economic Literature'']].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spolaore|first=Enrico|date=2020|title=Commanding Nature by Obeying Her: A Review Essay on Joel Mokyr's A Culture of Growth|url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20191460|journal=Journal of Economic Literature|language=en|volume=58|issue=3|pages=777–792|doi=10.1257/jel.20191460|s2cid=226193779 |issn=0022-0515|url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Geoffrey Hodgson]] criticized the book for placing "too much explanatory weight" on "too few extraordinary people."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hodgson |first=Geoffrey M. |author-link=Geoffrey Hodgson |date=2021 |title=Culture and institutions: a review of Joel Mokyr's A Culture of Growth |journal=Journal of Institutional Economics |language=en |volume=18 |pages=159–168 |doi=10.1017/S1744137421000588 |issn=1744-1374 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Honours and awards ==
Mokyr was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1996, and was elected a [[List of fellows of the Econometric Society|Fellow]] of the [[Econometric Society]] in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Member Directory {{!}} American Academy of Arts and Sciences |url=https://www.amacad.org/directory?field_class_section=21&field_class_section_1=36&field_deceased=1&sort_bef_combine=field_election_year_ASC&page=2 |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=www.amacad.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Current Fellows |url=http://www.econometricsociety.org/society/organization-and-governance/fellows/current |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=www.econometricsociety.org |language=en}}</ref> He was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 2001, whose biennial [[Heineken Prizes|Heineken Award]] for History he received in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |title=Joël Mokyr |url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/5204 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213195608/https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/5204 |archive-date=13 February 2016 |access-date=13 February 2016 |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Joel Mokyr (1946), USA |url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/awards/laureates/heinekenprize-history/joel-mokyr-1946-verenigde-staten |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722154153/https://www.knaw.nl/en/awards/laureates/heinekenprize-history/joel-mokyr-1946-verenigde-staten |archive-date=22 July 2020 |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences}}</ref> He won the 2015 [[Balzan Prize|Balzan International Prize]] for economic history.<ref name="nwbio">{{cite web |title=Joel Mokyr |url=http://www.economics.northwestern.edu/people/directory/joel-mokyr.html |access-date=27 January 2018 |website=Northwestern University}}</ref> He was awarded half of the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] in 2025 "for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress", the other half going to [[Philippe Aghion]] and [[Peter Howitt (economist)|Peter Howitt]].<ref name="nobel" />

== Personal life ==
Mokyr is married to Margalit (née Birnbaum), professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the [[University of Illinois Chicago]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Cahan |first=Richard |date=14 October 2025 |title=Joel Mokyr becomes Northwestern's fourth Nobel laureate |url=https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/10/14/joel-mokyr-northwestern-nobel-prize/ |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=Evanston RoundTable |language=en-US}}</ref> They have two daughters.<ref name=":4" />

== Books ==

* {{cite book | last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=Industrialization in the Low Countries, 1795–1850 | publisher=Yale University Press | publication-place=New Haven | date=1976 | author-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-300-01892-9}}
* {{cite book | last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=Why Ireland Starved | publisher=Unwin Hyman | publication-place=London | date=1985 | author-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-04-941014-5}} Revised edition.
* {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Economics of the Industrial Revolution | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | publication-place=Savage | date=1989 | editor-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-86598-148-5}}
* {{cite book | last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=Twenty Five Centuries of Technological Change: An Historical Survey | publisher=Taylor & Francis | publication-place=Chur | date=1990 | author-mask=2 | isbn=978-3-7186-4936-5}}
* {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Vital One: Essays in Honor of Jonathan Hughes | publisher=JAI Press(NY) | publication-place=Greenwich, Conn. | date=1991 |  isbn=978-1-55938-150-5 | editor-mask=2}}
* {{cite book | last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=The lever of riches: technological creativity and economic progress | publisher=Oxford Univ. Press | publication-place=New York | date=1992 | author-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-19-506113-0}}
* {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The British Industrial Revolution: an Economic Perspective | publisher=Westview Press | publication-place=Boulder, Colo. | date=1998 | editor-mask=2 | isbn=0-8133-3389-X}} Revised edition.
* {{cite book |editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy | publisher=Princeton University Press | publication-place=Princeton N.J | date=2002 | editor-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-691-09483-0}}
* {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History | publisher=Oxford University Press  | publication-place=Oxford | date=2003 | editor-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-19-510507-0}}
** {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Accounting and bookkeeping - Contract labor and the indenture system | publisher=Oxford Univ. Press | volume=1 | publication-place=Oxford | date=2003 | editor-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-19-517090-0}}
** {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Cooperative agriculture and farmer cooperatives - Hughes, Jonathan | publisher=Oxford Univ. Press  | volume=2 | publication-place=Oxford | date=2003 | editor-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-19-517091-7}}
** {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Monte di Pietà - Spain | publisher=Oxford Univ. Press | publication-place=Oxford  | date=2003  | editor-mask=2 | volume=3 | isbn=978-0-19-517093-1}}
** {{cite book |editor-last=Mokyr |editor-first=Joel |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Slavery, U.S. to Unions, Labor |volume=4 |publisher=Oxford University Press |publication-place=Oxford |editor-mask=2 |date=2003}}
** {{cite book | editor-last=Mokyr | editor-first=Joel | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Spices and spice trade, Zoos and other animal parks, Index | publisher=Oxford Univ. Press | publication-place=Oxford  | date=2003 | editor-mask=2 | volume=5 | isbn=978-0-19-517094-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700-1850 | publisher=Penguin Books Ltd | publication-place=London | date=2009 | author-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-300-18951-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Landes |first1=David S. |author-link=David Landes |last2=Mokyr |first2=Joel |last3=Baumol |first3=William J. |author-link3=William Baumol |title=The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-place=Princeton |date=2010 |author-mask2=2 |isbn=978-0-691-14370-5}}
* {{cite book | last1=Cruz | first1=Laura | last2=Mokyr | first2=Joel | title=The Birth of Modern Europe: Culture and Economy, 1400-1800 | publisher=BRILL | publication-place=Leiden | date=2010 | author-mask2=2 | isbn=978-90-04-18934-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=A Culture of Growth: Origins of the Modern Economy | publisher=Princeton University Press | publication-place=Princeton | date=2016 | author-mask=2 | isbn=978-0-691-16888-3}}
* {{cite book | last=Ofer | first=Anita | last2=Mokyr | first2=Joel | title=Economics in the Test of Time: Issues in Economic History | publisher=Open University of Israel Press | publication-place=Raanana | date=2017 | language=Hebrew | author-mask2=2  |  isbn=9789650615475}} <small>{{isbn|9789650615505}}</small>. Two volumes.
* {{cite book |last1=Greif |first1=Avner |author-link=Avner Greif |last2=Mokyr |first2=Joel |last3=Tabellini |first3=Guido |author-link3=Guido Tabellini |title=Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1200-2000 |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=4 November 2025 |author-mask2=2 |isbn=978-0-691-26594-0}}

== See also ==

* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]
* [[List of Israeli Nobel laureates]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Nobelprize}}
{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}
* [http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jmokyr Profile], Northwestern.edu; accessed 21 January 2016.

{{Heineken Prizes}}
{{Great Hunger}}
{{Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureates}}
{{Israeli Nobel laureates}}
{{2025 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mokyr, Joel}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Economic historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American economists]]
[[Category:20th-century American economists]]
[[Category:Dutch Jews]]
[[Category:American people of Dutch-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Jewish American historians]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Northwestern University faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:People from Leiden]]
[[Category:Winners of the Heineken Prize]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Historians of Ireland]]
[[Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Economic History Association]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Economics]]
[[Category:Dutch Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Dutch emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Jewish Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Israeli Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Dutch-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Tel Aviv University]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:American economic historians]]