Skip to content

Toggle service links

Inaugural lecture

Do the best firms always win? Puzzles around innovation and selection in economics

Prof Mariana Mazzucato
This event took place on 25th March 2009
Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall Campus, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
3.30pm Tea/Coffee on Berrill Foyer

Technological change is a defining feature of competition in capitalist economies. It is also one of the main factors that explain why firms are so different from each other. But what do we actually know about who survives and grows in the competitive race, and why? If it is not the ‘best’ firms, does this mean that market selection does not work? The lecture will explore some surprising data and results around this question, raising puzzles which challenge our thinking about innovation and competition policy—in a period in which ‘industrial policy’ is finally back on the front pages.

17.00 Reception in Berrill Café
Click below to play the event (62 minutes)