Europe losing tech race to China and US, Nobel Prize winner warns

French economist Philippe Aghion issued a stark warning to Europe shortly after winning this year’s Nobel Prize, saying the continent was losing the technology race to China and the United States.

“Europe needs to wake up. We’re falling behind technologically compared to the United States and now China,” the newly minted laureate said during public broadcaster France 2’s evening news programme on Monday.

“Since the 1990s, they’ve been developing breakthroughs, hi-tech innovations, while we’ve remained confined to incremental, mid-tech innovation,” he said.

“Europe needs to become truly innovative, because otherwise its decline will be inexorable. It will be marginalised.”

Aghion’s words will carry more weight after winning this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work explaining how innovation drives economic growth – a joint project with American-Israeli economic historian Joel Mokyr and Canadian economist Peter Howitt.

Despite the dire warning, Aghion stressed that Europe was capable of turning things around and catching up with the US and China.