Resumen de Innovation as economic history: Some reflections on Joel Mokyr’s vision and achievement after the Nobel Prize

Alessandro Nuvolari

• This paper offers a reappraisal of the contributions of Joel Mokyr to our understanding of the origins of Modern Economic Growth. In doing so, it highlights the specificities of Mokyr’s method and provides a critical discussion of the central concepts that structure his interpretative framework. It argues that, taken together, his major works amount to an integrated and insightful «grand narrative». Moreover, the paper contends that Mokyr’s scholarship serves not only as a historical interpretation but also as a valuable analytical outline for economics itself, showing how we can approach the study of the sources and drivers of useful knowledge.