Mariana Mazzucato and Michael Jacobs with a copy of their book, Rethinking Capitalism

A new book from SPRU's RM Phillips Professor in the Economics of Innovation Mariana Mazzucato and LSE's Michael Jacobs – Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – was launched with a talk from the authors and guest panelists in the Jubilee lecture theatre on 12 October 2016. 

The event, co-hosted by the School of Business, Management and Economics (BMEc), School of Global Studies and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), included contributions from the authors along with Head of BMEc Steve McGuire, Director of IDS Melissa Leach, LSE's Carlota Perez and Columbia University's Stephany Griffith-Jones.

• Read tweets from the audience on Storify 
• Listen to a full recording

Rethinking Capitalism offers a powerful challenge to mainstream economic debate and sets out new ideas to transform it. 

The book, published on 22 July by Wiley Blackwell, is a collection of chapters by a number of prominent economists including: Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz; the Bank of England’s Chief Economist Andy Haldane; Bernie Sanders' key adviser Stephanie Kelton; Colin Crouch; Carlota Perez, Mariana Mazzucato and others. The publication focuses on the challenges facing developed economies and the limitations of orthodox economics in understanding these and guiding policy.

Each chapter shows how today’s deep economic problems reflect the inadequacies of orthodox economic theory and the failure of policies informed by it. The book's contributors examine a range of contemporary economic issues, including fiscal and monetary policy, financial markets and business behaviour, inequality and privatisation, and innovation and environmental change. 

Further launch events

The event followed a number of other successful launches organised around the book at Birkbeck and UCL, the Labour Party Conference, the Institute for New Economic Thinking (Budapest) and at the European Committee of the Regions (Brussels), where Professor Mazzucato met with the EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas (pictured right). 

Professor Mazzucato will also give a talk at the Bristol Festival of Ideas on 15 November 2016, and give a Ralph Miliband Programme lecture at LSE on 30 November 2016.

Praise for Rethinking Capitalism

The Guardian's co-editors said of the book ahead of its publication:

'Markets are not external forces that bind firms to inevitable choices. They are created by the decisions made inside private and public institutions, as well as pressures from civil society. So not only can policymakers fix ‘market failures’, but they can also actively reshape and create markets for better ends.

'Globalisation and technological change create huge challenges for modern economies, but they are not uncontrollable forces of nature. The economy we have is the economy we choose to build. It is time to make different choices, and show that capitalism can be remade.'

Rethinking Capitalism has received positive reviews from Will Hutton, James Galbraith and Nicholas Stern, with Gillian Tett (Financial Times) describing it as 'hought provoking and fresh - this book challenges how we think about economics.' She writes:

'We badly need fresh thinking in the world of economic policy making today - and this book offers a plethora of provocative ideas.

'It tackles numerous sacred cows in a lively and provocative manner and challenges our assumptions. It is thus a very valuable and welcome contribution to the current debate about why so many western economies have performed poorly since the great crisis.'

Professor Mazzucato commented:

'The book is highly relevant to the debates occurring ahead of the US presidential campaign and to those occurring across Europe on weak growth, secular stagnation, and increasing inequality.'

Audio

Listen to a full recording of the event: 

Download: Rethinking Capitalism: 12 October 2016 [MP3 55.6MB]

Photos

View photos from the evening on Facebook 

Further information

• Order Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth on the Wiley Blackwell website, using the discount code on this flyer
• Read the book’s introduction for free, as a PDF download
• Read Mariana Mazzucato and Michael Jacobs’ article in the Guardian: If Theresa May is serious about inequality she’ll ditch Osbornomics
• Watch Mariana Mazzucato’s recent appearance on BBC Newsnight, discussing Theresa May’s new economic agenda
• See further information about the book on Mariana Mazzucato’s website.