Sussex economist Mariana Mazzucato wins New Statesman prize
Professor Mariana Mazzucato of the University of Sussex has won the first-ever New Statesman SPERI prize in political economy for her work on the “entrepreneurial state” and innovation in the public sector.
Professor Mariana Mazzucato
The prize will be awarded every two years to the scholar who has succeeded most effectively over in disseminating original and critical ideas in political economy to a wider public audience. Judges said that this year’s shortlist of six contained “some of the most innovative and exciting thinkers” in the field.
Announcing the inaugural winner on Monday (6 October 2014), the New Statesman magazine’s deputy editor, Helen Lewis, said that Professor Mazzucato, economist in SPRU, is “one of the most engaging and interesting thinkers” in modern economics.
Professor Mazzucato has become a leading voice in the economics of innovation and an accomplished broadcaster and writer. She said: “I am honoured and delighted to receive the New Statesman SPERI prize, especially given the high calibre of the shortlist. I hope it will help focus attention on the urgent need to tackle rising inequality. This is not just about tax: we need to fundamentally rethink how we talk about wealth creation.
“Ignoring the key role of the state – or the tax payer – in wealth creation has, in my view, been a lead cause of inequality, allowing some (hyped up) actors to reap a rate of return way beyond their actual contribution. My Prize Lecture will focus on this dysfunctional dynamic – and what to do about it.”
Her influential 2013 book, The Entrepreneurial State: debunking private versus public sector myths, debunked the myth of an innovative private sector versus a static, bureaucratic State. The book used the history of the internet, biotech, nanotechnology and the emerging clean technology sector to show how radical innovations only happened because of state investment. Her popular TED talk on the subject has been viewed online more than 600,000 times. It used the history of the iPhone to illustrate this point in a concise and dynamic way.
The panel of judges praised the originality of her thinking, her “willingness to challenge the conventional wisdom” and her capacity to “take her arguments forward with gusto”.
Professor Tony Payne, Director of SPERI, said: “Mariana Mazzucato is a fabulous first winner of this new Prize. She fulfils the criteria that describe the prize to the letter.”
Professor Mazzucato will deliver The New Statesman SPERI Prize Lecture at the Emmanuel Centre in London at 6.30pm on Thursday 13 November. Its title will be: “Smart growth: an innovative way to tackle inequality”. The lecture is free, but places are limited so early booking is advised.
The German translation of The Entrepreneurial State - called Das Kapital des Staates - was also shortlisted for the Deutscher Wirtschaftsbuchpreis, the main German award for books related to business, economics and markets.