Growth is not optional.
Without growth, there is no prosperity to share, no transition to finance, and no promise to keep to the next generation. Stagnation is not a virtue: it is the slow abdication of all collective ambition.
Paris Economic Forum · Prize Manifesto
For Growth, Innovation, and Economic Freedom.
Manifesto.
Europe and the world are entering a decade where prosperity will no longer be inherited: it must be earned, designed, and defended.
Productivity is slowing down, demographics are tightening, complexity is multiplying, and the cost of inaction has never been higher. In this landscape, the role of the Paris Economic Forum is not merely to debate the economy of tomorrow, it is to honor those who are actually building it.
Every year, the Paris Economic Forum Prize rewards women and men whose thinking, public action, entrepreneurial conquest, industrial transformation, or economic influence have pushed the boundaries of what is possible.
This is not an academic award. It is not a reward for compliance with the dominant consensus. It is the recognition of conviction translated into action, the rarest commodity in modern economic life, and the one upon which everything else depends.
The Paris Economic Forum awards the PEF Prize to those whose work, decisions, or commitments resonate with the following eight convictions. They close no doors; instead, they establish a common ground for judgment on what it means, today, to drive the economy forward.
The Eight Convictions.
These eight convictions establish a common ground for judgment on what it means, today, to drive the economy forward. They close no doors.
Creative destruction is the engine of progress.
Yesterday's solutions must make way for tomorrow's breakthroughs. Defending the obsolete in the name of stability is the surest path to losing the future. We honor those who dare to disrupt the established order in service of something better.
The entrepreneur is the protagonist of prosperity.
Value must be created before it can be redistributed. We salute the builders, the founders, and those who take the risks, those who transform ideas into industries, capital into jobs, and conviction into lasting institutions.
Competition over rent. Merit over privilege.
A healthy economy is one where market position is earned every day, never granted in perpetuity. We honor those who refuse the comfort of acquired rent and reject the protections of incumbency.
Innovation is a moral imperative.
Science, technology, and bold investment are not options: they draw the line between societies that rise and those that decline. Research, capital, and talent must be unleashed, not shackled to the point of paralysis.
Freedom is the breeding ground for prosperity.
Economic freedom is the prerequisite for human flourishing. The role of institutions is to build with those who build. The best public policies are co-created with economic actors.
History is unwritten.
Nations, regions, and organizations do not lose because they have to, they lose because, at decisive moments, they chose the status quo over courage, commentary over construction, and caution over invention.
The future belongs to those who build it.
Talk is easy. Building is hard. The PEF Prize salutes those who, year after year, translate theory into factories, ambition into products or services, ideas into public policies, investment into jobs, and conviction into measurable, defensible, and replicable progress.
Profile Typology.
The PEF Prize distinguishes women and men who may come from any of the following six profile typologies, united by the same thread: conviction in service of reality.
Economic thought
Researchers · EconomistsResearchers and economists whose work has reshaped the understanding of growth, productivity, innovation, and competition, and whose ideas fuel real policy decisions.
Public reform
Government · InstitutionsPublic leaders who, against the inertia of entrenched interests, have opened up space for entrepreneurship, restored fiscal discipline, or brought credibility back to their country's economic trajectory.
Entrepreneurial conquest
Founders · BuildersFounders who, on a large scale and against all odds, have built the companies, technologies, and industries upon which the next economic cycle will depend.
Industrial renewal
CEOs · Industry LeadersLeaders of major institutions who refused to manage decline and instead orchestrated the reinvention of their organization, sector, or value chain in the face of profound transformations.
Economic influence
Journalists · Public VoicesJournalists, essayists, columnists, and public figures whose writings, teachings, and public speaking have made economic thought accessible to the general public and, in doing so, elevate the level of democratic debate on prosperity.
Capital allocation
Investors · Asset ManagersInvestors, asset managers, and leaders of public or private financial institutions whose convictions translate into capital deployed at scale, financing the industries, technologies, and infrastructures upon which European competitiveness depends.