XClose

UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Menu

New Economic Thinking for a New Industrial Strategy

12 June 2024, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm

New Economic Thinking for a New Industrial Strategy

The launch of the Strategic Economics Alliance

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

UCL IIPP

Location

Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre
Wilkins Building
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/3PPeSs6lJ3M

 

Watch here

About the session

Industrial strategy is back around the world; however, it risks reverting to old models focused on promoting specific sectors and technologies, guided by outdated economic assumptions that limit the role of the state. It is often also being advanced without a global equity or global climate action lens. IIPP’s new Strategic Economics Alliance (SEA), spearheaded by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Dr Carolina Alves, aims to strengthen new economic thinking and its influence on economic policy, including in the area of green industrial strategy.

The climate crisis is a direct result of how we have designed our economies, and highlights the need for new economic thinking and practice. Current economic policy is severely restricted by economic theory that minimises the role of the state in shaping markets and directing growth that is inclusive and sustainable ex-ante - theory that has come predominantly from the Global North. IIPP is launching a new initiative to counteract this trend.

The SEA initiative will forge new connections between academics who are challenging mainstream economics and ambitious government and multilateral institution leaders, helping these leaders to better navigate the transition to inclusive and sustainable economies, and feeding back insights from their experience to inform economic theory. Importantly, it will provide a platform for amplifying the voices of women economists, in particular from the Global South, whose voices have been underrepresented.

Learn more about our work on industrial policy

Meet the panel

The discussion begun with a keynote speech from Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Mariana Mazzucato followed by a high-level panel discussion chaired by Leslie Johnston, Chief Executive Officer at the Laudes Foundation, including Carolina Alves, Associate Professor in Economics at UCL Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), Bogolo Kenewendo, global economist and former Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry in Botswana and Erika Kraemer-Mbula, Professor of Economics at the University of Johannesburg.

Key information

Read more about IIPP Forum 2024

About the Speakers

Carolina Alves

Associate Professor in Economics at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Carolina Alves
Prof Carolina Alves is Associate Professor in Economics at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Carolina joined IIPP from Girton College at the University of Cambridge, where she was the Joan Robinson Research Fellow in Heterodox Economics and a College Teaching Officer at the Faculty of Economics. At Cambridge, she led teaching in macroeconomics, political and social aspects of economics, and history and philosophy of economics while also being the Director of Studies for Economics for second-year undergrads and a member of Girton’s College Council responsible for the stewardship of the College. Carolina is the co-founder of Diversifying and Decolonising Economics – a network of economists working to promote inclusiveness in economics in both the academic content and the field’s institutional structures. She is a member of the Rebuilding Macroeconomics Advisory Group - a research initiative aimed at re-invigorating macroeconomics and bringing it back to the fore as a policy-relevant social science, as well as being the co-editor for the Developing Economics blog, which takes a critical approach to creating discussion and reflection in the field of economics. She is also a board member of the Progressive Economy Forum Council (PEF) and Positive Money. More about Carolina Alves

Mariana Mazzucato

Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

Mariana Mazzucato
Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She has won international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy's highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world. 

Professor Mazzucato is the author of four highly-acclaimed books: The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (2013), The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy (2018), Mission Economy: a moonshot guide to changing capitalism (2021) and The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023). 

She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led, inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles include being Chair of the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, Co-Chair on the Council on Urban Initiatives, and a member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council.

More about Mariana Mazzucato

Leslie Johnston

Chief Executive Officer at Laudes Foundation

Leslie Johnston
As its founding CEO, Leslie Johnston leads the development and execution of Laudes Foundation’s strategy to deliver on its mission to accelerate the transition to a green, fair and inclusive economy. Leslie currently serves on the boards of Impact Europe (formerly the European Venture Philanthropy Association) as Chair, Fashion for Good BV, the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), Built by Nature Stichting (as Vice Chair), Climate Resilience for All as well as University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Advisory Board.

Leslie has over 25 years of management experience across business, entrepreneurship, development, and philanthropy. Previously, she headed C&A Foundation as its first Executive Director, repositioning it as a global catalyst to make fashion a force for good. She served as Executive Director of the Argidius Foundation, Deputy Director for TechnoServe in Africa and a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Leslie lives in Zug, Switzerland with her husband and two teenage sons.

More about Leslie Johnston

Bogolo Joy Kenewendo

Global economist at Kenewendo Advisory

Bogolo
Bogolo Joy Kenewendo is an economic diplomacy expert with a diverse background in trade & investment, finance & development, and public policy. As a former Specially Elected Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister in Botswana, she drove investment, trade, and key agreements. In her current role, she has been driving non-state climate action and unlocking financing for sustainable development in Africa. Kenewendo serves on various corporate and philanthropic boards, including Bank Gaborone and the Africa Free Trade Area Adjustment Fund Corporation. She's been frequently recognized, including by TIME Magazine as a TIME100 Next Honoree. More about Bogolo Joy Kenewendo

Erika Kraemer-Mbula

Professor of Economics at University of Johannesburg

Erika Kraemer-Mbula
Erika is a Professor of Economics and is currently the Chair holder of the DSI/NRF Trilateral Research Chair in Transformative Innovation, the 4IR & Sustainable Development, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development, based at the College of Business and Economics (University of Johannesburg) and in partnership with ACTS and SPRU. Her research unit at the University of Johannesburg is formed by a dynamic team of national and international researchers that engages in cutting-edge research; builds the capacity of younger scholars to help develop the next generation of African thinkers leading transformative change; and engages with policy makers, key stakeholders and research partners, to influence policy change. Trained as an Economist, she holds a Masters in Science and Technology Policy by the Science and Policy Research Unit (University of Sussex), and a doctorate in Development Studies from the University of Oxford. More about Erika Kraemer-Mbula