Ruttan (2006) argues that large-scale and long-term government investment has been the engine behind almost every GPT [General Purpose Technologies] in the last century. He analysed the development of six different technology complexes (the US ‘mass production’ system, aviation technologies, space technologies, information technology, Internet technologies and nuclear power) and concluded that government investments have been important in bringing these new technologies into being.
Thus argued Mazzucato i…
Consider the following sentences
Without the State/Elon Musk we would have no iPhone/SpaceX
The role of the State/Elon Musk was crucial for the success of the iPhone/SpaceX
The State/Elon Musk played a very important role in the development of the iPhone/SpaceX
The State/Elon Musk were one of the factors that played a role in the development of the iPhone/SpaceX
The State/Elon Musk played a minor role role the development of the iPhone/SpaceX
The State/Elon Musk had nothing to do with the development of …
If you've been reading the series on Mazzucato, Innovation and so on, you may have found holes in my arguments, or unaddressed reasonable concerns. Rest assured, I'm aware of that. Here I will present some of that objections that can be made to my arguments, but I won't respond to them yet. To make things extra fun, I will write what follows as if the writer were another person criticising me, with a slightly angry tone.
The Hayekian argument is wrong
So you are one of those market fundamentalists. If so, o…
You probably know Nikola Tesla, the man who according to a series of sites you can find around invented basically everything. Not quite, however. If you go and read a proper Tesla biography, such as W. Bernard Carlson's Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age you will discover that many things said about Tesla are myths.
However, there is consensus in attributing Tesla the invention of the induction motor and of rotating magnetic fields. Now, suppose Tesla hadn't ever been born. And I present you with a quest…
[This post is a translation of this other post of mine]
I recently read Mariana Mazzucato's The Entrepreneurial State, where it is proposed that the State has and ought to have an important role in the scientific-technologic field, beyond solving market failures and externalities.
As a reminder that States do things in this sector it is okay. Maybe it could be of some use to believers in some sort of heroic entrepreneurs. But in general, the book is poorly argued and documented. (In the near future I hope t…
[This post is a translation of this other post of mine]
As we saw in a previous post, one of the main examples used by Mariana Mazzucato to validate her arguments is the case of the iPhone. Let us remember, Mazzucato's thesis is that most of modern technology is due to directed governmental research efforts, not only in basic science, but also in technological commercialisation, direct investment, loans, etc. These kinds of policies make up what she calls The Entrepreneurial State. We must make clear the di…