Mariana Mazzucato: at the head of a new type of economy

Mariana Mazzucato is an incendiary economist. In 2020, she became Chair of the WHO Council on Economics of Health for All. “The idea was instead of doing the usual thing to say invest in health because it’s good for the economy, what if you said invest in health for all and go back and design an economic system for getting there means designing a different form of budgeting, another form of procurement, another form of intellectual property, another form of public-private collaboration on projects,” she explains. The work of the all-female Council is divided into “measuring and valuing health for all, governing innovation, financing the common good and building public sector capacity”. She says that “I am particularly interested in health because ‘there are so many different players in health… there are big state players like the NHS but there are also innovation agencies and private players… I think it’s an area in which we can test different models of “fa ire”. capitalism” for the common good, rather than just private profit. And it’s also an area that you can potentially use at the local level to foster debate about what it really means to live healthier together? Board member Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, and long-time colleague, appreciates Mazzucato’s leadership on the Board: “Working with Mariana is both challenging and rewarding because she is so energetic and engaged herself. , so clearly wanting the Council to be determined and show results. The WHO Board…has been a wonderful experience also for the warm personal relationships with her and other outstanding colleagues, striving to achieve common goals.