In The Entrepreneurial State, Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, argues that the popular story of heroic entrepreneurs backed by timid governments is backwards: in many of the biggest technological breakthroughs, the state has been the bold, patient, high-risk investor. She shows how public agencies funded early-stage research, built capabilities, and created markets in areas where private capital was unwilling to take on deep uncertainty – helping to generate innovations later commercialised by firms.
Using examples from sectors like ICT, biotech/pharma, and clean energy, she claims the state often acts as a “lead” entrepreneur: setting missions, coordinating networks, and absorbing failures. The problem, she says, is that rewards are frequently privatised while risks are socialised, leaving public value under-recognised and under-funded. Her conclusion is not “more state vs less state,” but a smarter, mission-oriented state that shapes markets, designs better public-private partnerships, and captures a fairer share of upside to reinvest in future innovation.