The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt for reminding us that growth stems not from capital, but from innovation and competition.
Their theory of creative destruction explains that economies advance when they allow new ideas to replace old ones, and when the state creates the conditions for this renewal to occur.
Chile invests only 0.4% of its GDP in R&D, about US$1.6 billion annually, compared to the OECD average of 2.7%. If we applied the “Nobel manual” and increased that investment to 1.5% of GDP—about US$6 billion annually—we could raise potential growth from the current 2.2% to nearly 3.5% by 2035. This is not rhetoric: it is evidence. Each additional percentage point of GDP invested in innovation generates between 0.5 and 1 extra percentage point of productivity over a decade.
More than an expense, innovation is a multiplier for the future. Mokyr argues that progress stems from accumulated knowledge; Aghion and Howitt demonstrate that competition keeps curiosity alive. Chile needs both: education that cultivates innovators and competition that allows them to flourish.
There is no growth without risk and reinvention. Investing in knowledge is not a luxury: it is the only economic policy that multiplies all others. The real challenge is not spending more, but daring to create more.
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