Mariana’s work focuses on innovation, value, public sector and is influenced by the economist Joseph Schumpeter.

Mariana’s 2013 book, ‘The Entrepreneurial State’, used detailed real-world research to show the central role that the state has played in the history of technological change from the Internet to biotech. She revealed that every technology that makes the iPhone so ‘smart’ was government funded: the Internet, GPS, its touch-screen display and the voice-activated Siri. The public sector’s role can and should extend well beyond fixing market failures to co-shaping and co-creating markets, especially in responding to climate change and the Green New Deal.

Her latest book, ‘The Value of Everything’ (2018), takes on the financial system, arguing that society needs first to understand value. The financial sector often portrays itself as value creators, while in reality they are often just moving existing value around or destroying it. 

How this differs from the mainstream

The mainstream has generally claimed that government is not able to promote industrial growth as it has neither the skill nor information. Proposals to do so are dismissed as ‘picking winners’ and past claimed failures are pointed to. The only role for government in this area is seen as correcting market failures as a ‘corrected’ market is seen as the most efficient mechanism for delivering industrial growth. The mainstream see the value of products and people as determined by the amount people are willing to pay for them. They rarely explore the role of history and power structures in determining value.

For more on Mariana's work see:

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