Economist and author Mariana Mazzucato, who is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, will tour Australia in March next year for a series of public lectures and high-profile speaking engagements.
As an economist Professor Mazzucato rose to global prominence through her views on industry development and innovation policy through best-selling books like The Entrepreneurial State and Mission Economy, which highlight the role of government and public investment in research in delivering value.
Professor Mazzucato will be in Australia March 11-14 with speaking engagements in Sydney and Melbourne. The speaking tour is being hosted by key partners, the national science agency CSIRO, the federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources and Breakthrough Victoria.
Professor Mazzucato’s speaking tour includes four speaking dates, with single tickets and tables of ten now on sale.
- Sydney Public Lecture – University of Technology Sydney, Monday 11 March 6pm
- Sydney Keynote Luncheon Address – Hyatt Regency Sydney, Tuesday 12 March 12.30pm
- Melbourne Keynote Dinner Address – Plaza Ballroom, Melbourne, Wednesday 13 March 7pm
- Melbourne Public Lecture – Glyn Davis Building, University of Melbourne, Thursday 14 March 7pm
Supporting partners include Investment NSW, the Australian Computer Society, University of Technology Sydney and Melbourne University.
Other sponsors of the program include the James Martin Institute for Public Policy, the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship, the Centre for Policy Development, and the Industry Capability Network. The tour is being coordinated by InnovationAus.com.
Like much of the rest of the world, Australia is rethinking its approach to industrial policy in the wake of Covid-induced supply chain shocks, energy transition issues and the growing geostrategic competition.
In fact, Australia’s industrial policy thinking has shifted in a way not seen in 40 years. Issues of sovereign capability, sovereign supply chains, friend-shoring, strategic alliances across critical technologies – these are all mainstream discussions today.
The Mariana Mazzucato Australia Speaking Tour has been timed to add not only intellectual rigour to this discussion, but also a global perspective to what’s happening in industrial policy across the world.
At the federal level, the Albanese government has already moved to create the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to target priority areas by offering loans, guarantees and equity investment.
But as the arrival of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States last year shows, there is more work to be done. The government is contemplating what its version of the unfortunately named IRA might look like.
Professor Mazzucato already has the attention of Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who early this year cited her work in his 6000-word essay on the future of capitalism.
“As the influential economist Mariana Mazzucato has explored in her work, markets built in partnership through the efforts of business, labour and government, are the still the best mechanism we have to efficiently and effectively direct resources,” he wrote in January 2023.
“But these considered and efficient markets were not what the old model delivered. And while the 2008 crisis finally exposed the illegitimacy of this approach, no fresh consensus has yet taken its place.
“One reason we became more vulnerable to economic uncertainty and upheaval by 2020 is that for much of the past decade leaders failed to do the thinking that would have given us a new plan in the intervening years,” Mr Chalmers wrote
There has been great interest in Professor Mazzucato’s work on public sector research and industry policy – especially through her books Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths and Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism.
Her most recent book – with Rosie Collington – is The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies, a scathing assessment of the role of consultants.
Join us for this rare opportunity to hear from one of the leading names in economics! There’s only a few tickets left!
http://InnovationAus.com
