He is a professor at the Collège de France and the London School of Economics, a member of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the economics of growth. With Peter Howitt, he pioneered the so-called “Schumpeterian growth paradigm,” which was subsequently used to analyze the structure of growth policies and the role of the state in the growth process. In 2001, he received the Yrjö Jahnsson Award as the best European economist under 45; in 2009, he received the John von Neumann Award, and in March 2020, he shared the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award with Peter Howitt for developing a theory of economic growth based on innovation that emerges from the process of creative destruction.
For Marsilio Editori, he published The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations (2021).