Fiscal Space for Industrial Strategy: A Conversation between Mariana Mazzucato and Nicolás Grau
Join Professor Mariana Mazzucato in conversation with Chile's former Finance Minister Nicolás Grau on fiscal space, industrial strategy, and the politics of structural transformation.
Fiscal Space for Industrial Strategy: A Conversation between Mariana Mazzucato and Nicolás Grau
05 May 2026, 17:30 – 19:00
Join via Zoom
This event is organised by the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (UCL IIPP). Explore more IIPP events here.
About this talk:
What does it take to expand fiscal and policy space for industrial strategy from inside government? Drawing on his experience leading fiscal policy in a country pursuing a more ambitious developmental agenda, Grau will reflect on the political economy of directing structural transformation under real macroeconomic and institutional constraints, and on the tensions that arise when long-term industrial objectives meet the disciplines of fiscal management and market expectations.
The conversation will explore how governments can treat fiscal and policy space not as a fixed ceiling but as a variable to be shaped, deploying instruments from public investment and development banks to procurement, regulation, and state-owned enterprises to coordinate finance, build productive capacity, and direct investment towards mission objectives. Professor Mazzucato will draw on Grau’s experience to discuss why delivering this agenda requires rethinking the economics through which fiscal responsibility, value and the role of the state are understood, and why this at the centre of to a new global council she co-chairs with Spain’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Carlos Cuerpo, on building a common good economy.
Meet the panel:
- Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
- Nicolás Grau, Chile’s Former Finance Minister
Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (UCL IIPP)Mariana Mazzucato is 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). Her previous posts include the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University. She is a member of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Italian Academy of Sciences Lincei.
Nicolás Grau Veloso served as Minister of Economy (2022–2025) and Finance (2025–2026) under President Boric. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and was a professor at the University of Chile. His research spans labour economics, inequality, and industrial policy. In government, he led initiatives including Chile's National Lithium Strategy, the Sustainable Productive Development Program (DPS), the Green Hydrogen Plan, and the Biobío Industrial Fostering Plan.
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