Mariana Mazzucato helps policymakers understand how the global economy really works (and how we need to fix it).

Why you should listen

Mariana Mazzucato, PhD, is a 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 (IIPP). She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. 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.

Mazzucato's 2013 book, The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Mythsinvestigates the role of public organizations in playing the "investor of first resort" role in the history of technological change. Her 2018 book, The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy, brings value theory back to the center of economics in order to reward value creation over value extraction. It was a 2018 Strategy & Business "Best Book of the Year" and was shortlisted for the 2018 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize.

 Mazzucato is the winner of 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, is on The Bloomberg 50 list of "Ones to Watch" for 2019 and on the "Wired25" list.

Mariana Mazzucato’s TED talks

More news and ideas from Mariana Mazzucato

Live from TED2020

Conversations on capitalism and climate change: Week 6 of TED2020

June 25, 2020

For week 6 of TED2020, experts in the economy and climate put a future driven by sustainable transformation into focus. Below, a recap of insights shared throughout the week. Mariana Mazzucato, economist Big idea: Government can (and should) play a bold, dynamic and proactive role in shaping markets and sparking innovation — working together with […]

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Live from TEDSummit 2019

Business Unusual: Notes from Session 4 of TEDSummit 2019

July 24, 2019

To keep pace with our ever-changing world, we need out-of-the-box ideas that are bigger and more imaginative than ever. The speakers and performers from this session explore these possibilities, challenging us to think harder about the notions we’ve come to accept. The event: TEDSummit 2019, Session 4: Business Unusual, hosted by Whitney Pennington Rodgers and […]

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News

A first glimpse at the TEDSummit 2019 speaker lineup

May 21, 2019

With TEDSummit 2019 just two months away, it’s time to unveil the first group of speakers that will take to the stage in Edinburgh, Scotland, from July 21-25. Three years ago, more than 1,000 members of the TED global community convened in Banff, Canada, for the first-ever TEDSummit. We talked about the fracturing state of […]

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