Questioning the Entrepreneurial State
Wennberg, K. & Sandström, C. (2022). Questioning the Entrepreneurial State. Springer.
Wennberg, K. & Sandström, C. (2022). Questioning the Entrepreneurial State. Springer.
Western economies are struggling to recover from a decade of Plagued by structural crises, an ongoing pandemic, high unemployment and sluggish growth. As progressively looser monetary and fiscal policies have not helped, both the EU and national governments have increasingly turned towards interventionist industrial policies. Mariana Mazzucato’s The Entrepreneurial State (2011) provided an intellectual justification for these efforts, and consequently gained popularity. The message was clear: in order to get more innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainable development and growth we need more government, not less. In this book, 30 international scholars address the core ideas underpinning the entrepreneurial state. We provide evidence of both historical and recent failures of “green deals” and similar efforts, while also developing novel directions for innovation policy. In many regards, this book is a warning: huge government schemes towards specific, noble outcomes have historically been plagued with failures. In sum, we argue that innovation policy needs to be inverted: instead of being specific and targeted, it needs to be broad and general, focusing on the general conditions for firms to operate. Instead of providing targeted support to certain firms, industries or even technologies, innovation policy needs to constructively deal with barriers to innovation, including the proactive handling of vested interest groups.
The book is open access and can be downloaded here.
2024
Stockholm: Ratio.
Den senaste utvecklingen inom Europeiska unionen (EU) signalerar en betydande rörelse mot hållbarhet och miljöskydd. Från 1990 till 2021 har EU-medlemsländernas utsläpp av växthusgaser minskat med 29 % samtidigt som den reala BNP:n ökat med 62 %, vilket visar på frånvaron av samband mellan ekonomisk tillväxt och utsläpp. Utsläppen har minskat i 24 av 27 medlemsländer. Sverige utmärker sig med de lägsta växthusgasutsläppen per BNP-enhet inom EU. Dessutom har konsumtionsbaserade CO2-utsläpp minskat med 27 %, en positiv trend som observerats i 22 av 27 medlemsländer. Trots att Tyskland, Frankrike, Italien och Polen står för en betydande del av de totala växthusgasutsläppen inom EU, fortsätter den generella trenden mot minskade utsläpp. Luftkvaliteten har också förbättrats, med en minskning i 25 av 26 kategorier av luftföroreningar sedan 1990, och nästan total eliminering av ozonnedbrytande ämnen. Dessa framsteg understryker effekten av EU:s miljöpolitik, och ger hopp om en mer hållbar framtid för Europa.
2024
Springer Cham.
This open access book raises some central questions: Do we need moonshot policies to spur innovation and economic growth? What are the risks associated with such policies?
Economic turbulence, the COVID-19 pandemic, and mounting environmental concerns have paved the way for a renaissance of targeted industrial policy. In particular, the idea that society should be organized around large missions is gaining momentum among high-income economies. However, the authors and editors of this volume contend that this shift has occurred without much critical examination, especially as the European Union has adopted these ideas, and Western economies are now increasingly organizing toward the achievement of large, state-formulated goals.
Recognizing the urgent need for continued scholarly attention to question notions of the mission economy, more than 20 scholars discuss the dangers of top-down/vertical approaches to industrial policy and draw attention to the progress of independent enterprise, entrepreneurialism, and market solutions in a sound economy and society. By critically examining mission-oriented innovation policies, using theoretical perspectives and empirical investigations, the book highlights both the mechanisms behind failed missions and alternative approaches. This is a must-read for policy researchers and policymakers alike.
2023
Working Paper No. 368.
This paper reviews theoretical rationales for mission-oriented innovation policy and provides an empirical overview of extant 28 papers and 49 cases on the topic. We synthetize varieties of mission formulations, actors involved, and characteristics of missions described as more or less failed or successful. 59 percent of the studied missions are still ongoing, 33 percent are considered successful and 8 percent as failures. 67 percent of the studied missions have taken place in Europe, 24 percent in North America and 8 percent in Asia. The majority of innovation projects referred to as missions do not fulfill the criteria defined by the OECD. Results suggest that missions related to technological or agricultural innovations are more often successful than broader types of missions aimed at social or ecological challenges. Challenges regarding the governance and evaluation of missions remain unresolved in the literature. We find no case that contains a cost-benefit analysis or takes opportunity cost into account.