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The Covid-19 crisis has seen the state intervene in our economies and daily lives in a way unthinkable even a year ago. And citizens now have far greater expectations of the state and its role in managing public health and financial risk than before.
This episode of our podcast examines the size and role of the state in the countries where we work, the future for state-owned enterprises and what the state’s new prominence means for the green economy and ‘building back better’.
Mariana Mazzucato, economist and professor at the University College London (UCL), Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at Columbia University; Dani Rodrik, professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government; and Beata Javorcik, EBRD Chief Economist, discussed the significant role of the state in modern economies and shared their views on our new Transition Report: “The State Strikes Back”.
Professor Mazzucato highlighted how important it is to differentiate when the state works and when it does not. "It is not much about the size or quantity of the state; it is more about the qualitative features and how it interacts with the private sector," she said.
According to Professor Stiglitz, "40 years of denigrating the role of the state has left us less prepared to deal with a crisis such as this pandemic. The pandemic has reminded us of the importance of the state."
This Transition Report Special was presented by Anthony Williams, EBRD Director of External Communications.
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