https://www.unige.ch/gsem/en/about/news-events/events/solari2026

SOLARI LECTURE 2026 BY PROFESSOR PHILIPPE AGHION: CREATIVE DESTRUCTION, AI, AND EUROPE’S AWAKENING
Friday, 9 October 2026
14h15
40, Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve
1205 Genève
Room MR 290, Uni Mail

The Solari Lecture 2026 will welcome Professor Philippe Aghion. His lecture will show how the Schumpeterian growth paradigm can shed light on recent history debates (secular stagnation, middle-income trap, European decline, impacts of AI) and be used to rethink capitalism.

The Solari Lecture welcomes distinguished guests specialized in economics and econometrics, in memory of Luigi Solari, professor at the University of Geneva and pioneer in introducing research in econometrics in Switzerland. Since its first edition in 1979, this conference has featured several notable guest speakers, e.g., Jan Tinbergen, Richard Stone, Robert Engle, Bengt Holmström, Jean Tirole, Esther Duflo and Charles F. Manski.

> Register here.

Biography

Philippe Aghion is a Professor at the Collège de France, INSEAD, and the London School of Economics, and a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A leading scholar of innovation and growth, he co‑developed Schumpeterian Growth Theory with Peter Howitt, now a central paradigm for understanding how innovation, market structure, and firm dynamics shape economic growth.

His contributions are synthesized in Endogenous Growth Theory, The Economics of Growth, Competition and Growth, and The Power of Creative Destruction. He received the Yrjö Jahnsson Award (2001), the John von Neumann Award (2009), and the BBVA Frontier of Knowledge Award (2020). In 2025, he was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Peter Howitt and Joel Mokyr.