Read more
The Value of Everything argues that American companies have for too long been valued according to the amount of wealth they capture for themselves rather than for the value they create for the economy. In fact, Pfizer, Amazon, and other companies are actually dependent on public money, spend their resources on boosting share prices and executive pay, and reap ever-expanding rewards without offering the market value. In her previous work,
The Entrepreneurial State, Mariana Mazzucato argued that public investment has been the most significant driver of innovation and product development. The iPhone as it exists would not have been possible without government-sponsored technology like Siri and Touch ID. Yet Apple today, like numerous other companies, is engaging in a massive repurchase scheme, and for the first time has prioritized value-extraction practices such as spending to boost shareholder profit--the very initiatives that funded their software. If private companies continue down this path, they will succeed in diminishing the size of their largest and most successful investor--the state--and will destroy powerful opportunities, shrivel markets, and depress wealth.
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.
