Professor Mariana Mazzucato giving the 2016 Raúl Prebisch lecture

SPRU's RM Phillips Professor in the Economics of Innovation Mariana Mazzucato delivered the prestigious XIV Raúl Prebisch Memorial Lecture on 19 April - making her the first woman to do so - and met with a number of key ministers during a week-long visit to Chile and Argentina.

Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, said:

'Professor Mazzucato has stormed the global economic debate as a fresh, clear and rigorous voice and, armed with data, has dismantled orthodoxy’s discursive device, unveiling the State’s role not as simply correcting ‘market failures’ but as a powerful creator of new markets.'

Previous Prebisch speakers have included Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph Stiglitz and Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government Dani Rodrik.

Professor Mazzucato was the first woman to give the lecture, which was established in 2001 to mark the 100-year anniversary of Raúl Prebisch, former Executive Secretary of ECLAC.

Her talk, entitled 'The Entrepreneurial State: A Market Creation View of Directionality in Economic Development', was given at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago on Tuesday 19 April 2016.

Professor Mazzucato analysed the role of economic policy in setting both the pace and the direction of economic growth. Discussing the problems that policy faces when viewed solely in terms of “fixing” market or system failures, she put forward a more active market-shaping and market-creating view of policy based on the Entrepreneurial State perspective.

The lecture also looked at the new methods of public policy evaluation needed for such an approach, as well as the need to bring together the priorities of smart growth with inclusive growth.

• Watch a recording of Professor Mazzucato’s Raúl Prebisch lecture.

While in Santiago, Professor Mazzucato met with key ministers including the Chilean Minister of Economy (Luis Felipe Cespedes) and Senator Guido Girari. She also attended a roundtable meeting with the Vice-President of CORFO (Eduardo Bitrán) and other CORFO and ECLAC experts.

Travelling onwards to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Professor Mazzucato gives a keynote lecture at Argentina’s Ministry of Science (Thursday 21 April), where the Ministers of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (Lino Barañao) and of Production (Francisco Cabrera) will respond to her talk. 

On Friday 22 April, she will also be presented with the Doctor Honoris Causa Award by the National University of San Martín. Also through invitation by ECLAC, Professor Mazzucato will be giving the opening keynote in the ministerial high-level seminar “Horizons 2030: Equality at the Centre of Sustainable Development” in Mexico City on 26-27 May 2016.

Professor Mazzucato recently launched her report on innovation policy, for the Brazilian Government which was co-written with Dr Caetano Penna (Former SPRU PhD student and Research Fellow). Commissioned by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation through the Centre for Strategic Studies and Management (CGEE), the report argues that Brazil must put investment in innovation back at the core of its economic policy to achieve economic recovery and long-term growth.

Further information

• Read ECLAC’s press release: Mariana Mazzucato: The State Does Not simply Correct “Market Failures,” It is also the Creator of Wealth and Engine of Innovation.
• Watch Professor Mazzucato's Raul Prebisch lecture on YouTube.
• Read an interview on Chilean news site Ciper.
• Read news stories from: El Mostrador, Xinhua Español, Radio Programas del Perú, El Diario, Terra