Everyone knows innovation and technology transform society by increasing productivity and raising living standards. Where does all this innovation come from? Who's developing the revolutionary products we use every day? These questions are at the heart of the political economic debate that shape markets and successful societies in the 21st century. An analysis of the facilitating inputs, myths and realities to provide some clarity is desperately needed to establish consensus to continue to develop and progress. In today's partisan political environment and with the prevailing assumptions this requires deeper historical perspective.
Perhaps no one has done more to raise public awareness in this regard than Mariana Mazzucato. Her most recent work "The Entrepreneurial State" and Mission-Oriented Finance for Innovation Conference are important amplifiers of the states "mission oriented" role in facilitating efforts at innovation. She writes,
"The role of the state in modern capitalism has gone beyond fixing market failures. Those regions and countries that have succeeded in achieving ‘smart’ innovation-led growth have benefited from long-term visionary ‘mission-oriented’ policies—from putting a man on the moon to tackling societal challenges such as climate change and the well-being of an ageing population. In addressing these missions, public sector agencies have led the way, investing along the entire innovation chain and courageously defining new high risk directions. Traditional cost-benefit analysis and market failure justifications would have halted these investments from the outset. There would have been no internet, no biotech, no nanotech; and today, no clean-tech."
Innovation in the public interest has especially strong historical roots in military applications. However, the changing nature and definition of national security and public interest in coordination with shrinking public sector budgets and the need for continued innovation put these efforts at a crossroads.
What is required is a new framework wherein the gains from public investments in innovation, such as GPS, Google and all those aspects of your phone that make it smart, support continued future public investment that is self sustaining.
For a simple to read but excellent introduction to this read The Breakthrough Institute's "Where Good Technologies Come From: Case Studies in American Innovation". Increasing our standard of living and opportunities for growth depend on these publicly supported foundations that history proves to be true.
Highlighting these efforts and making sense of political debates with an toward practicing economics in the public interest is why we're here and why we need your support to build the campaign.
Additional Reading
The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths
By Mariana Mazzucato
Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Markets, Speculation and the State
By Dr William H. Janeway
From Welfare State to Innovation State by Dani Rodrick
William Lazonick, “The Financialization of the US Corporation: What Has Been Lost, and How It Can Be Regained,” Seattle University Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 2 (2013). ↩
Perhaps no one has done more to raise public awareness in this regard than Mariana Mazzucato. Her most recent work "The Entrepreneurial State" and Mission-Oriented Finance for Innovation Conference are important amplifiers of the states "mission oriented" role in facilitating efforts at innovation. She writes,
"The role of the state in modern capitalism has gone beyond fixing market failures. Those regions and countries that have succeeded in achieving ‘smart’ innovation-led growth have benefited from long-term visionary ‘mission-oriented’ policies—from putting a man on the moon to tackling societal challenges such as climate change and the well-being of an ageing population. In addressing these missions, public sector agencies have led the way, investing along the entire innovation chain and courageously defining new high risk directions. Traditional cost-benefit analysis and market failure justifications would have halted these investments from the outset. There would have been no internet, no biotech, no nanotech; and today, no clean-tech."
Innovation in the public interest has especially strong historical roots in military applications. However, the changing nature and definition of national security and public interest in coordination with shrinking public sector budgets and the need for continued innovation put these efforts at a crossroads.
What is required is a new framework wherein the gains from public investments in innovation, such as GPS, Google and all those aspects of your phone that make it smart, support continued future public investment that is self sustaining.
For a simple to read but excellent introduction to this read The Breakthrough Institute's "Where Good Technologies Come From: Case Studies in American Innovation". Increasing our standard of living and opportunities for growth depend on these publicly supported foundations that history proves to be true.
Highlighting these efforts and making sense of political debates with an toward practicing economics in the public interest is why we're here and why we need your support to build the campaign.
Additional Reading
The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths
By Mariana Mazzucato
Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Markets, Speculation and the State
By Dr William H. Janeway
From Welfare State to Innovation State by Dani Rodrick
William Lazonick, “The Financialization of the US Corporation: What Has Been Lost, and How It Can Be Regained,” Seattle University Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 2 (2013). ↩