The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths

Written by Mariana Mazzucato

Narrated by Callie Beaulieu

The world's most popular products, from the iPhone to Google Search, were funded not by private companies, but the taxpayer.

In this sharp and controversial international bestseller, an award-winning economist debunks the pervasive myth that the government is sluggish and inept, and at odds with a dynamic private sector. She reveals in detailed case studies that the opposite is true: the state is, and has been, our boldest and most valuable innovator. Denying this history is leading us down the wrong path. A select few get credit for what is an intensely collective effort, and the U.S. government has started disinvesting from innovation. The repercussions could stunt economic growth and increase inequality. Mazzucato teaches us how to reverse this trend before it is too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jun 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781400171644

Mariana Mazzucato

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 Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is the winner of international prizes including the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought and the 2020 John von Neumann Award. Her award winning books include The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths (2013) and The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018). She advises global policy makers and is Chair of the World Health Organization’s Council on the Economics of Health for All and a member of the UN’s High-level Advisory Board (HLAB) on Economic and Social Affairs. 

Reviews for The Entrepreneurial State

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

State financing, not private investment, lays the groundwork for much valuable innovation, and pretending that it doesn’t has led to the fetishization of private business, the stripping of government capacity, and the collapse of taxation/regulation of the “innovators” who get credit for taking tech the last 10% of the way to widescale implementation. That 10% is important, Mazzucato argues, but it can’t be the only thing we focus on. And that means that government is going to have to take risks, and will sometimes invest in losers. Solyndra goes bankrupt, but Apple is worth hundreds of billions because of investments largely by the US military and related entities in various internet-relevant technologies, and we’re at risk of missing out on green tech if we don’t start investing government resources in basic research and in moving technologies towards commercialization.