Philippe Aghion is a professor at the Collège de France where he is chair of The Economics of Institutions, Innovation, and Growth, and at the London School of Economics. He was previously Professor of Economics at Harvard. Céline Antonin is a senior economist at the French Economic Observatory, associate professor at Sciences Po Paris, and research associate at the Collège de France in the Economics of Innovation Lab. Simon Bunel is research associate at the Collège de France in the Economics of Innovation Lab, and an administrator at the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).
Creative destruction is the process by which new innovations constantly render existing technologies and activities obsolete. It is the process by which newly created jobs constantly replace existing ones.
This book invites the reader to rethink the history and enigmas of growth through the prism of creative destruction, and to challenge many “conventional wisdoms”. Why technological revolutions and automation create more jobs than they destroy. Why competition and industrial policy are not are not incompatible with one another. Why capital surcharges are not the best way to make growth fairer. Why secular stagnation is not inevitable. Why industrialization is not an indispensable step in the development process. Why the carbon tax is not the only lever for greener growth. Why, with appropriate public policies, creative destruction does not harm health and happiness.