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Mariana Mazzucato informs the UK COVID-19 Economic Recovery Taskforce

23 June 2020

IIPP Director contributes to the UK government’s economic recovery work in light of the Coronavirus crisis and gives evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Select Committee on post-pandemic recovery.

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UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Director Professor Mariana Mazzucato has been contributing the IIPP perspective on how the UK government can drive innovation-led economic growth to recover from the post-COVID-19 economic crisis in two high-profile engagements.

On Friday 12th June, Professor Mazzucato contributed to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS) Economic Recovery Taskforce meeting on how to accelerate business innovation and leverage private sector investment in research and development. The meeting was chaired by BEIS Secretary of State Alok Sharma and attended by businesses representatives including AstraZeneca, Rolls-Royce, and Procter and Gamble.

On Thursday 25th June, Professor Mazzucato gave evidence to the House of Commons BEIS Select Committee alongside Professor Diane Coyle of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. The evidence session was the kick-off to the committees inquiry into Post-Pandemic Economic Growth. The Committee is investigating whether the post-pandemic world presents an opportunity for a resetting of the UK economy: from delivering sustainable climate resistant growth and jobs and levelling up regional economies so that communities and individuals no longer feel left behind to solving old problems such as poor productivity, sluggish exports and disorganised devolution and embracing new opportunities to modernise the UK economy.

In both cases, Professor Mazzucato has informed UK policymaking with IIPP's groundbreaking work on how purpose and a mission-oriented approach delivered through market-shaping policies can drive economic growth towards societal challenges. Speaking to the select committee Professor Mazzucato said,

“We can’t just wait for a pandemic for the government to step in - government investment and involvement should be a long-term feature of our economic policy. This shouldn’t be based on policies just seeking to fix market failures but rather to create or shape markets. Instead of asking should we or should we not help Tata Steel – we should ask how can we help? And then we should think about our answer in terms of our long-term industrial and decarbonisation strategy”

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Related

Explore more of IIPP's work on mission-oriented innovation:

A Mission-Oriented UK Industrial Strategy

A mission-oriented framework for the Scottish National Investment Bank