Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism - Hardcover

Mazzucato, Mariana

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241419735 ISBN 13: 9780241419731

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2021

Synopsis

'One of the most influential economists in the world' Wired

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, capitalism was stuck. It had no answers to a host of problems, including disease, inequality, the digital divide and, perhaps most blatantly, the environmental crisis. Taking her inspiration from the 'moonshot' programmes which successfully co-ordinated public and private sectors on a massive scale, Mariana Mazzucato calls for the same level of boldness and experimentation to be applied to the biggest problems of our time. We must, she argues, rethink the capacities and role of government within the economy and society, and above all recover a sense of public purpose. Mission Economy, whose ideas are already being adopted around the world, offers a way out of our impasse to a more optimistic future.

About this title

About the Author

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). Previously she held the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University. She is a selected fellow of the UK's Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and of the Italian National Science Academy (Lincei).

She is winner of international prizes including the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought and the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values. She was named as one of the '3 most important thinkers about innovation' by the New Republic and one of the 25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism by Wired.

Her highly-acclaimed book The Entrepreneurial State (2013) investigates the critical role the state plays in driving growth and her book The Value of Everything (2018) looks at how value creation needs to be rewarded over value extraction.

She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles include being a member of the Scottish Government's Council of Economic Advisors; the South African President's Economic Advisory Council; the OECD Secretary General's Advisory Group on a New Growth Narrative; the UN's Committee for Development Policy (CDP), Vinnova's Advisory Panel in Sweden, and Norway's Research Council. Through her role as Special Advisor for the EC Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, she authored the high impact report on Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union, turning "missions" into a crucial new instrument in the European Commission's Horizon innovation programme.

From the Back Cover

The extraordinary efforts that took mankind to the moon 50 years ago were more than a scientific feat of aeronautics. They required new forms of collaboration between the public sector (notably, NASA) and private companies. This book asks: what if the same level of boldness - the boldness that set inspirational goals, took risks and explicitly recognized that this requires large spending but will be worthwhile in terms of long-term growth - was applied to the biggest problems of our time, climate change, disease and inequality, to name only a few? Mariana Mazzucato argues that applying innovation to societal goals and structuring government budgets more explicitly to the long-term, as the moon programme did, we can do government differently.

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241419735
• ISBN 13: 9780241419731
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272