Patient Finance and Public Banking

IIPP research explores new forms of public banks, finance and governance to promote sustainable investment, working with public sector financial institutions and governments.

IIPP advocates for a new approach to public finance that positions public development banks (PDBs) and sovereign investment funds as key actors in shaping and co-creating markets, rather than merely filling financing gaps left by the private sector. Unlike private financial institutions constrained by short-term return expectations, well-designed PDBs provide patient, risk-tolerant capital to drive investment in strategic sectors, fostering long-term economic transformation.  

Mission-oriented finance enables governments to actively direct investments towards industrial upgrading, climate resilience, and technological innovation—areas where market incentives alone may be insufficient. By leveraging stable funding mechanisms, deploying progressive conditionalities, and embedding sectoral expertise, public financial institutions can play a catalytic role in mobilising private investment, coordinating industrial strategies, and steering economies toward sustainable and inclusive growth. Drawing on IIPP’s work with institutions like KfW, BNDES, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and Camden Wealth Fund, this framework highlights the institutional capabilities needed for public finance to drive structural change and generate public value. 

Highlighted projects 

Final report of the G20 Group of Experts to TF-CLIMA

Final report of the G20 Group of Experts to TF-CLIMA

Missions framework for the European Investment Bank

Missions framework for the European Investment Bank

Financing towards the Social Development Goals (SDGs)

Financing towards the Social Development Goals (SDGs)

Mission-oriented Scottish Investment Bank

Mission-oriented Scottish Investment Bank

Public development banks: KfW and BNDES

Public development banks: KfW and BNDES

Camden Community Wealth Fund

Camden Community Wealth Fund

Publications

  • Ciaffi, G., Deleidi, M. and Mazzucato, M. (2024). ‘Measuring the macroeconomic responses to public investment in innovation: evidence from OECD countries’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 33(2), pp. 363–382. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtae005.  
  • Rockström, J., Mazzucato, M., Andersen, L. S., Fahrländer, S. F., and Gerten, D. (2023). ‘Why we need a new economics of water as a common good’, Nature, 615, pp. 794-797. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00800-z  
  • Mazzucato, M. (2022). ‘Financing the Green New Deal’, Nature Sustainability, 5, pp. 93-94. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00828-x 
  • Laplane, A. and Mazzucato, M. (2020). ‘Socializing the risks and rewards of public investments: economic, policy, and legal issues’, Research Policy, 49. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.repolx.2020.100008  
  • Deleidi, M., Mazzucato, M., and Semieniuk, G. (2020). ‘Neither crowding in nor out: public direct investment mobilising private investment into renewable electricity projects’, Energy Policy, 140 (111195). doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111195 (Working Paper version available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/sites/public-purpose/files/final_neither_crowding_in_nor_out_deleidi_mazzucato_semieniuk_web_0.pdf) 
  • Lamperti, F., Mazzucato, M., Roventini, A., and Semieniuk, G. (2019). ‘The green transition: public policy, finance and the role of the State’. Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung/Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, 88(2), pp. 73-88. doi: https://doi.org/10.3790/vjh.88.2.73  
  • Marois, T. (2021) A Dynamic Theory of Public Banks (and Why it Matters). Review of Political Economy. Online March 2021. (working paper version)
  • Mikheeva, O. (2021) Financial governance of strategic investments: development banks and state-led investment function. Innovation and Development, special issue Financing Innovation for Development in the Global South, forthcoming.
  • McDonald, David A and Marois, T. and Spronk, S. (2021) 'Public Banks + Public Water = SDG 6?'. Water Alternatives, (14) 1, pp 117-134.
  • Deleidi, M., Mazzucato, M., & Semieniuk, G. (2020). “Neither crowding in nor out: Public direct investment   mobilising private investment into renewable electricity projects”. Energy Policy, 111195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111195 (working paper version)
  • Laplane, A. and Mazzucato, M. (2020), “Socializing the risks and rewards of public investments: Economic, policy, and legal issues.” Research Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.repolx.2020.100008
  • Lamperti, F., Mazzucato, M., Roventini, A., & Semieniuk, G. (2019). “The green transition: public policy, finance and the role of the State”. Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung/Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, 88(2), 73-88. https://doi.org/10.3790/vjh.88.2.73
  • Ho, S. and Marois, T. (2019) 'China’s Asset Management Companies as State Spatial–Temporal Strategy'. The China Quarterly, 239: 728-751. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741019000018
  • Mikheeva, O. and Tõnurist, P. (2019). 'Co-Creation for the Reduction of Uncertainty in Financial Governance: The Case of Monetary Authority of Singapore.’ Administrative Culture, 19 (2), 60-80.
  • Mikheeva, O. (2019). Financing of Innovation: National Development Banks in Newly Industrialized Countries of East Asia. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 42 (4), 590-619.
  • Juuse, E., Raudla, R., Cepilovs, A. and Mikheeva, O. (2019). 'The Europeanization of Financial Regulation and Supervision On the Baltic-Nordic Axis: National Bureaucracies’ Perspective’. Journal of Baltic Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2019.1678495 
  • Mazzucato, M. and Semieniuk, G (2018) “Financing renewable energy: who is financing what and why it matters”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 127, 8-22. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162517306820 (WP version  https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/sites/public-purpose/files/iipp-wp-2018-04.pdf)
  • Campiglio, E., Dafermos, Y., Monnin, P., Ryan-Collins, J., Schotten, G., & Tanaka, M. (2018) 'Climate change challenges for central banks and financial regulators', Nature Climate Change, 8 (6), pp. 462-468.
  • Grilli, L., Mazzucato, M. Meoli, M. and Scellato, G. (2017), “Sowing the seeds of the future: Policies for financing tomorrow’s innovations”, Introduction to Special Issue in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.10.021
  • Mazzucato, M. and Semieniuk, G. (2017) “Public financing of innovation: new questions”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 33 (1): 24–48. https://academic.oup.com/oxrep/article/33/1/24/2972707  
  • Ryan-Collins, J. (2017) 'Breaking the taboo: a history of monetary financing in Canada, 1930-1975', The British Journal of Sociology, 68 (4), pp. 643-669
  • Mazzucato, M. and Penna, C. (2016) “Beyond market failures: the market creating and shaping roles of state investment banks”, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 19(4): 305-326, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17487870.2016.1216416
  • Marois, T. and Güngen, A.R. (2016) ‘Credibility and Class in the Evolution of Turkey’s Public Banks’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(6): 1285 1309. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1176023
  • Burlamaqui, L., and Kattel, R. (2016). Development as leapfrogging, not convergence, not catch-up: Towards Schumpeterian theories of finance and development. Review of Political Economy, 28(2), pp. 270-288.
  • Burlamaqui, L. and Kattel, R. (2016). Assessing divergent development trajectories: Schumpeterian competition, finance and financial governance. Revista Brasileira de Inovação, 15(1), pp.9-32
  • Mazzucato, M. (2013), “Financing innovation: creative destruction vs. destructive creation,” in special issue of Industrial and Corporate Change, M. Mazzucato (ed.), 22(4): 851-867.

  • Marois, T. (2021) Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation, and Democratisation. Cambridge University Press.
  • Kattel, R., Drechsler, W. and Karo, E. (2021) Innovation bureaucracies: Let’s Make the State Entrepreneurial. Forthcoming in Yale University Press.
  • McDonald, D.A., Marois, T., and Barrowclough, D.V. (eds.) (2020) Public Banks and Covid-19: Combatting the Pandemic with Public Finance. Municipal Services Project (Kingston), UNCTAD (Geneva), and Eurodad (Brussels). https://publicbankscovid19.org/index.php/publications
  • Mazzucato, M. and Penna, C. Eds (2015) Mission-Oriented Finance for Innovation: New Ideas for Investment-Led Growth, Rowman & Littlefield, Book, ISBN 978-1-78348-495-9 http://www.policy-network.net/publications/4860/Mission-Oriented-Finance-for-Innovation

  • Mazzucato, M. and Macfarlane, L. (forthcoming) ‘Green patient finance for inclusive and sustainable economic development’, in Mathews, J. and Oqubay, A. (eds.) Oxford Handbook on Greening the Economy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.  
  • Mazzucato, M. (2023). ‘Governing Water as a Common Good’, in CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (ed.) No one is saved alone: Dreams in action based on Pope Francis’s exhortation Laudate Deum. CAF- banco de desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe, pp. 83-86. Available at: https://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/2184  
  • Semieniuk, G. and M. Mazzucato (2019). ‘Financing Green Growth’, in Fouquet, R. (Ed.) Handbook on Green Growth. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.  
  • Mikheeva, O. and Juuse, E. (2021). ‘Development Finance in the Baltic States and the Process of Europeanisation.’ In Matthias Thiemann, Daniel Mertens and Peter Volberding (eds.) The Reinvention of Development Banking in the European Union: Industrial Policy in the Single Market and the Emergence of a Field, pp. 253-282. Oxford University Press.
  • Bone Dodds, G. & Pollard, J. (2020), Islamic Finance: diversity within difference. In: Gibson-graham, J.K & Dombroski, K eds. The Handbook of Diverse Economies. Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 346-353, https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the-handbook-of-diverse-economies-97817...
  • Hemerijck, A., Mazzucato, M. and Reviglio, E. (2020) “Social Investment and Infrastructure” in C. Saraceno A European Public Investment Outlook, Chapter 7. Eds Cerniglia, F. and Saraceno, F, Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0222
  • Marois, T. (2020) ‘The KfW And Covid-19: Coordinating Public Finance Responses At Home And Abroad’. In: McDonald, David A. and Marois, Thomas and Barrowclough, Diana, (eds.), Public Banks And Covid-19: Combatting The Pandemic With Public Finance. Municipal Services Project/Eurodad/UNCTAD, pp 149-170.
  • Mazzucato, M. and Wray, L.R. (2016) “(Re) introducing Finance into Evolutionary Economics: Keynes, Schumpeter, Minsky and Financial Fragility” in Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: A Twenty First Century Update, Eds. Burlamaqui, L. and Kattel, R. Routledge Studies in History of Economics, Oxford, UK, (WP version http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_837.pdf) 
  • Mazzucato, M. (2016) “Innovation, the State and Patient Capital”, in Rethinking Capitalism Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, Chapter 6. Eds Jacobs, M. and Mazzucato, M, Wiley-Blackwell, London, UK 

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News and events 

Contact

Josh Ryan-Collins
Associate Professor in Economics and Finance
View Josh's profile

j.ryan-collins@ucl.ac.uk

Rogerio De Almeida Viera De Sa
Research Fellow (Public Finance)
View Rogerio's profile

r.sa@ucl.ac.uk