The Common Good Economy: A New Compass
About this ebook
In this ambitious and urgent new book, Mazzucato presents a systematic and scalable vision of successful government that creates value, addresses inequalities, and serves collective ends. Emphasizing a need to shift from reactively putting bandages on market failures to proactively shaping economies that actually work, she proposes a new economic theory of the common good. The book outlines five pillars of progressive government and demonstrates how they can help us tackle the most pressing challenges of our time.
In critiquing the patchy version of the ‘public good’ and the ‘commons’ in economic theory—used by governments, civil society organizations and businesses worldwide, Mazzucato aims to radically change how ‘good’ is achieved. Building on her ‘mission-oriented’ approach and her influential rethinking of the role and nature of the ‘entrepreneurial state’, The Common Good Economy is a timely analysis and a manifesto for ensuring the welfare of both people and the planet.
About the author
Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose. She is the winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy's highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing 'more humanity' to the world.
As well as The Entrepreneurial State, she is the author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018), Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021), and The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023).
She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led, inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles have included for example Chair of the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, Co-Chair of the Council on Urban Initiatives, and member of the South African President's Economic Advisory Council.
