Israeli-American economist Joel Mokyr was named Monday as one of a trio of researchers awarded the Nobel prize in economics for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth.”

Mokyr, 79, a professor from Northwestern University, won alongside Philippe Aghion from the College de France and the London School of Economics, and Peter Howitt from Brown University.

Born in Leiden in the Netherlands to a Dutch-Jewish family that survived the Holocaust, Mokyr was raised in Haifa. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics and history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem before moving to the US to continue his academic pursuits and graduating with a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.

Mokyr’s academic studies and research specialize in the economic history of Europe, the understanding of the economic and intellectual roots of technological progress, and population change.

The Nobel committee awarded Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites........

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