Mariana Mazzucato Introduced by Martin Sandbu

World-leading economist Professor Mariana Mazzucato takes inspiration from the moonshot programmes and argues that government needs to create a sense of public purpose to meet the big challenges of the age.

Mazzucato says capitalism was struggling to deal with many issues, including disease, inequality, the digital divide and the environment, even before COVID-19 struck. She argues that the world needs the same level of boldness, experimentation and co-ordination between public and private sectors that were behind the successful moonshots. To do that we need to rethink the capacities and role of government within the economy and society.

Mazzucato is professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London and founding director of its Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She is author of award-winning books including The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths and The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. She is an advisor to the governments of Scotland, South Africa and Argentina and chairs the World Health Organization’s Council on the Economics of Health for All. She will be introduced by the Financial Times’s European economics commentator Martin Sandbu.