A talk with Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, and author of The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths and The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy.

This talk will argue that modern economic theory has led to the confusion between profits and rents, and hence the distinction between value creation and value extraction. Using case studies from Silicon Valley to the financial sector to big pharma, she demonstrates how the current rules of the system reward extractors over creators, and distort the measurements of growth and GDP. In the process, innovation suffers and inequality rises. To move to a different system—with growth that is more inclusive, sustainable and innovation-led—it is critical to rethink public value and public purpose in the economy.

The talk will be followed by responses from Professor Karthik Ramanna and Professor Eric Beinhocker, and a Q&A, moderated by Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government.

This event is now at capacity. The talk will be livestreamed and recorded on the Blavatnik School of Government YouTube channel.

Speaker biography

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), and is Founder and Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP).  She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive growth, including a special advisory role to the EC.

She is winner of the 2014 New Statesman SPERI Prize in Political Economy, the 2015 Hans-Matthöfer-Preis, and the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. She was named as one of the '3 most important thinkers about innovation' by the New Republic.  

Her highly-acclaimed book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths was on the 2013 Books of the Year list of the Financial Times. Her new book The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy has been released and was shortlisted for this year’s Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize.

This event is co-hosted with INET and the Oxford Martin School.