Debunking the Myths of Public and Private Sectors: An Entrepreneurial State Perspective

Kindle Customer: I bought this book for a class and I thought it would be boring, I was pleasantly surprised that is not the case, is very engaging and critical about the topic.

Canada on Nov 26, 2023

dwayne crombie: Thoughtful, readable book that well and truly debunks the myth about private business and venture capitalists being the innovation and growth engine on our economies. So much of the heavy lifting for term innovation is left to the public sector because it is considered too risky by the. The rewards definitely should be shared by governments (on behalf of the people) so that there is a clear risk-reward relationship between public and private. Mazzucato is crystal clear in her arguments, and as her Apple shows deftly shows, so much of the propaganda we are fed, including by an unquestioning media is full of half truths. Well done

Australia on Oct 04, 2023

Ciro Linhares: Este livro foi responsável por modificar - lê-se melhorar - a forma pela qual enxergo a relação do Estado e o mercado.
Quem diria, o mercado e seus atores andam vendendo uma imagem de autonomia e até superioriedade para com o Estado, mas, ao observar os fatos recentes e históricos, não é isso que se evidencia. Na verdade, o mercado é mais um fenômeno jurídico e, por conseguinte, gestado pelo Estado, do que um fenômeno autônomo.
Isso tudo é escancarado com maestria pela Autora Mazzucato! ÓTIMA LEITURA!!

Brazil on May 10, 2023

xtiny: I enjoyed the examples and laws cited in this book, which argues that the state’s role in economy is not solely as a regulator or remedy for market/allocation failures. It provides justification for why more states should sink their teeth deeper into the economy, with some good counter-examples and examples that debunk popular myths about innovation. I particularly enjoyed the the elaboration of why and how Apple was able to revolutionise mobile consumer electronics.

However, I did find some rebuttals lean (if not weak) as a reader with basic economics knowledge and would have appreciated footnotes or references at those points. I also would have appreciated a more meaty the “solutions” segment including examples from state investment in countries like Japan (mentioned elsewhere but not in this section), China, and Singapore.

A worthy read, but written to debunk the ideology of libertarian Americans. In my part of the world (East and Southeast Asia), where the appetite and political will for state capitalism is greater, encouraging innovation may require a markedly different approach than the policies recommended.

United States on Aug 22, 2020

Michael A. Kalm: I first learned about this book when I heard an hourlong podcast where Mariana Mazzucato, the author, is interviewed by Stella Creasy who is a London School of Economics trained Labour Party member of parliament, about Mazzucato's research findings and policy proposals.
Lately, we have been hearing some bold proposals about a Green New Deal. Many have dismissed this idea as pie in the sky. Some have supported it as crucially necessary to the survival of the planet, but have been vague as to how to actually bring this about. Well, Mariana Mazzucato, Chair in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, and Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College, London, addressed this very issue in her 2015 book, "The Entrepreneurial State." She points out that our current economy is built around fossil fuels, and that to address climate change will require a large restructuring of our basic economy. This will include building new Public-Private partnerships, and innovation that will create new jobs, new security and repair infrastructure. To accomplish this, we first have to let go of false myths we hold about the responsibility as well as the...

United States on Feb 24, 2019

M. Hillmann: This is an important book.

Mariana Mazzucato persuasively argues that the state has a key entrepreneurial role in technical development and innovation and development. She contends that the central role that the State has played in kick starting the IT and pharmaceutical sectors in the US and the green technologies in Germany and China and the auto industry in Japan has not been adequately recognized and cannot be contested.

Conventional theory is that the State 's role is to establish and enforce the rules of the game, to keep a level playing field, to build public goods such as infrastructure, defence, and basic research and to devise mechanisms to mitigate negative externalities such as pollution. If the state intervenes beyond that it is accused of picking winners. It should be up to private industry to innovate.

But Mazzucato believes that the history of technological change teaches us that choosing particular sectors by the State is absolutely crucial. She contends that in practice the State in the US, and especially in China and Japan, has invested heavily in going way beyond basic research in providing for the explosion of innovation in certain...

United Kingdom on Dec 31, 2018

J. Edgar Mihelic, MA, MA, MBA: In this book, Mazzucato makes the argument that the state is the best actor to be the one to make long-range investments in technology, as private actors under capitalism are too focused on short term rewards to really be able to focus on real blue ocean development.

In fact, she argues, some of the more celebrated examples of private innovation can be linked to research and investment the state has made. This process of celebrating the private corporation has a way of erasing what the state has done and allows political rhetoric to attack research the state does. Her best example in the book is the Apple iPhone, where she looks at the basic research from the internet to mobile telephony to interface design that goes back to work governments did starting thirty or more years ago. I think as a reader that this example is strong enough to support her basic argument, but she also continues in the book to look at solar power as another example. Because this isn’t as widespread as the iPhone and its clones, it feels like a weaker example, even if down the road it will be more prevalent than the iPhone.

United States on Aug 05, 2018

os: If we believe much of what passes for the political narrative of the last 40 years it would be easy to imagine that it is the state that stifles innovation, restricts enterprise and burdens citizens and businesses with unnecessary regulation, wasteful expenditure and life sapping tax policies. As with every argument, there may be some truth there, lurking in the intellectual undergrowth, but how much of it is a shaky justification for perpetuating the currently socially injurious power relations?

What the Left and indeed the Centre Right in British politics has needed a core of ideas and beliefs (as well as credible historical examples /policy ideas)that can justify the idea that the role of the state in the politico eco-system is vital to the future growth and prosperity of the economy. This rigorously researched, tightly argued, accessible book is indeed a sturdy intellectual platform for those readers who feel that free markets are only part of the story in the way that the modern economy functions. Readers of a more Libertarian hue, will also have much to ponder here. Understanding the role of state and its promotion of enterprise and innovation will undoubtedly turn...

United Kingdom on Nov 06, 2017

E D: Mazzucato sheds light on the little talked about and often underestimated role that governments play in innovation. Her overall messages - that the state makes keystone contributions to the innovation process across industries and that the rewards of this innovation accrue largely to the private sector - add a new perspective on a number of public debates. It's an enriching read.

But do not expect a comprehensive treatise on the balance between public and private sector participation in innovation. Mazzucato focuses largely on how the state drives innovation. She is careful not to dismiss the importance of businesses, and in the case of Apple she concedes the company deserves credit for the innovative way it integrated various technologies in a well designed and marketed product. But what I missed in this book is a model of how innovation occurs that could help us understand more precisely the interplay between the actors and their relative contributions. This is not to say the book is unfair or imbalanced. I simply see it as the first volume in a new, more nuanced public discussion on innovation that Mazzucato aims to launch with her book.

Mazzucato is a clear...

United States on Apr 27, 2016

Kindle Customer: Too repetitive

United States on Mar 07, 2016