Nobel Prize winner: "I sat there for 15 minutes, sort of dazed" after hearing he won

Описание: (13 Oct 2025)

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4610509

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++SOME WHITE FLASHES BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++
++BEGINS AND ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Skokie, Illinois -- 13 October 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Joel Mokyr, economics and history professor at Northwestern University:
"I cannot receive phone calls on my telephone from people who are not on my contact list, which is a way of avoiding junk calls. But of course that also means that when the Swedish Academy calls, it goes into the you know the mailbox. So I woke up this morning very early, because I was terribly keen on finding out what happened to the hostages in Israel, which is I'm from where I'm from. And so I turned on my laptop, it was maybe I don't know what 5 a.m. And I see all these messages. You heard it before, Stephanie. I see all these messages. 'Congratulations.' And I go, Congratulations, what is this about? I mean it's not my birthday. And so then one or two men mentioned, you know, 'oh well deserved,' you know, that kind of nonsense that people write when somebody gets an award. So I go, 'What?' So I look at my phone, and there is a message, a missed call from a country code 42, which I know is Sweden. And you know, so I called them back, and they told me that I won the prize, and then I think I sat there for 15 minutes, sort of dazed, because I mean everybody says 'I'm I'm I'm surprised.' Most people lie about it, you know. But in my case, it's really true that I told people that I didn't think I had a chance of winning the Nobel Prize, and that I wouldn't vote for me if I were on the committee. But apparently other people differed from me, which and you know, as they say, I'll take the money."
++WHITE FLASH++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Joel Mokyr, economics and history professor at Northwestern University
" I have two grandchildren who are going to private school in Seattle. That'll eat it up real fast."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Three researchers who probed the process of business innovation have won the Nobel memorial prize in economics for explaining how new products and inventions promote economic growth and human welfare, even as they leave older companies in the dust.

The prize was announced Monday.

It honored research that was credited with helping economists better understand how ideas and technology succeed by disrupting established ways. The process is as old as steam locomotives replacing horse-drawn wagons and as contemporary as e-commerce shuttering shopping malls.

The winners were Dutch-born Joel Mokyr (mo-KEER) from Northwestern University; Philippe Aghion from the Collège de France and the London School of Economics; and Canadian-born Peter Howitt from Brown University.

During an interview with The Associated Press, Mokyr said he didn't get the call right away because his phone doesn't accept calls that are not in his contact list. He found out from seeing emails congratulating him.

"I think I sat there for 15 minutes, sort of dazed, because I mean everybody says 'I'm I'm I'm surprised.' Most people lie about it, you know. But in my case, it's really true," he said.

AP video shot by Laura Bargfeld

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