Robert Solow received the 1987 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to the theory of economic growth. His work helped establish a rigorous framework for studying how economies expand over time.
The Solow–Swan model separates growth into contributions from capital accumulation, labor, and technological progress. A central result is that sustained increases in living standards cannot be explained by simply adding more machines, because capital faces diminishing returns. Long-run growth therefore depends heavily on technological progress.
Solow also developed the idea of growth accounting, which estimates how much of output growth comes from measured inputs and how much remains unexplained by them. That residual is often associated with productivity improvements.
The 1987 prize recognized Solow’s foundational role. Paul Romer, whose later work emphasized endogenous technological change, won a different economics prize in 2018, so the two economists should not be confused.