Shipping containers at the Canadian Pacific railyard in 2015.Ben Nelms/Reuters

The Canadian-born academic Peter Howitt, 79, from Brown University, won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday, together with two others. They were awarded for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth,” including the key principle of creative destruction.

Mr. Howitt is a former contributor to The Globe and Mail. The following is a column he wrote in 2015 on the subject of his research.

With the Canadian economy shrinking for the past two quarters, the news has looked grim. But people leaving jobs and companies going out of business can also be signs of a dynamic economy – one in which new companies are successfully challenging old ones.

Economic growth is an uneven process that does not immediately benefit everyone. The technological innovations that drive growth arise sporadically. Economist Arnold Harberger taught us that an economy doesn’t grow........

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