About this Event
The Wheeler Institute is delighted to welcome Philippe Aghion, recent Nobel Laureate and one of the world’s foremost thinkers on innovation-led economic growth, to London Business School. The event will take place on February 9, 2026, and it will be the inaugural event of a limited series of conversations on Public Policy in the Age of Innovation.
Philippe Aghion is the Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor of Innovation and Growth at INSEAD and a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. His work has fundamentally shaped contemporary thinking on the relationship between innovation, competition, institutions, and long-run economic growth. In his recent Nobel Lecture on Economics and Creative Destruction, Aghion explored some of the most pressing challenges facing modern economies, from the middle-income trap and structural transformation to the role of flexicurity and institutional design in sustaining inclusive growth.
This event will situate these ideas within the broader debate on how capitalism must evolve to respond to today’s economic, social and technological pressures. Drawing on decades of influential research and policy engagement, Philippe Aghion will reflect on how innovation-driven growth models can be reconciled with social cohesion, resilience and opportunity.
The conversation will explore Aghion’s research on creative destruction alongside today’s “guns and butter” trade-offs, from defence spending and innovation to public investment in areas such as health and education, concluding with a discussion about the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and potential lessons for Europe.
The event will be opened by Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics and Dean of LBS, and moderated by Paolo Surico, Professor of Economics at LBS.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
LT18 & 19 Sammy Ofer Centre, London Business School, Old Marylebone Town Hall, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
