Philippe Aghion


Philippe Mario Aghion FBA is a French economist who is Centennial Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Professor at the Collège de France. He is also an Associate in the Growth Research Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance.

Early life and education

Aghion was born in Paris, the son of Gaby and Raymond Aghion.
Aghion is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, has a Diplôme d'études approfondies in Mathematical Economics from University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Career

He was formerly the Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University and is currently Professor of Economics at London School of Economics and Collège de France, and an invited professor at the Paris School of Economics, having previously been Professor at University College London, an Official Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and an Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His main research work is on growth and contract theory. With Peter Howitt, he developed the so-called "Schumpeterian paradigm", and extended the paradigm in several directions; much of the resulting work is summarised in his joint book with Howitt entitled Endogenous Growth Theory. For 2019 he received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics.
He was elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2015.

Other activities

Aghion was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009 and he is a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee ] of CERGE-EI. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
Ahead of the 2012 French presidential election, Aghion co-signed an appeal of several economists in support of candidate François Hollande.
In 2016, Aghion was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to an expert group advising the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, which was co-chaired by presidents François Hollande of France and Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

Publications

*