{"id":34969,"date":"2026-03-06T14:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/boktips\/a-green-entrepreneurial-state-exploring-the-pitfalls-of-green-deals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:35:11","slug":"a-green-entrepreneurial-state-exploring-the-pitfalls-of-green-deals","status":"publish","type":"boktips","link":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/bookreviews\/a-green-entrepreneurial-state-exploring-the-pitfalls-of-green-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"A Green Entrepreneurial State? Exploring the Pitfalls of Green Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mission-oriented innovation policy has gained a lot of traction among politicians and government officials, not least in Europe. In the book   <a href=\"https:\/\/esbri.se\/boktips\/mission-economy-a-moonshot-guide-to-changing-capitalism\/\"><em>Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism <\/em><\/a>  (2021), researcher Mariana Mazzucato argues that traditional market solutions cannot be relied on to solve major societal challenges.<\/p>\n\n<p>However, there are critical voices in the scientific community. In the books <a href=\"https:\/\/esbri.se\/boktips-entreprenorsstaten-ifragasatts\/\"><em>Questioning the Entrepreneurial State: Status-quo, Pitfalls, and the Need for Credible Innovation Policy<\/em><\/a> (2022) and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/boktips-the-entrepreneurial-state-questioned-again\/\">Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy: Questioning the Mission Economy<\/a><\/em> (2024), scholars offer objections and criticisms of the entrepreneurial state and analyze the consequences of initiatives inspired by mission-oriented innovation policies.  <\/p>\n\n<p>The editors of <em>Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy<\/em> &#8211; Magnus Henrekson, Christian Sandstr\u00f6m and Mikael Stenkula &#8211; have now published a new book &#8211;  <em>A Green Entrepreneurial State? Exploring the Pitfalls of Green Deals <\/em>  (open access &#8211; link at the end).<\/p>\n\n<p>In the book, they and 17 other researchers examine various forms of &#8216;Green Deals&#8217;, including the EU Green Deal. This is done on the basis of a number of empirical cases and the analysis is based on three theoretical perspectives: evolutionary economics, the public choice school, and behavioral economics.  <\/p>\n\n<p>The book highlights what the authors consider to be a series of failed and problematic projects and policies. Examples include Germany&#8217;s Energiwende (transformation to renewable energy), Italy&#8217;s super bonus for reduced energy use, and the Swedish examples of Hybrit (fossil-free steel) and Northvolt (batteries). Broader areas such as the transition to a more plant-based diet and the development of hydrogen production are also covered.  <\/p>\n\n<p>According to the authors, there are several factors that cause mission-oriented policies to fail. Among others, they point to:   <\/p>\n\n<p>\u2022 that complex problems do not lend themselves to top-down management.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u2022 policy makers lack the information needed to design missions to be effective.<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8211; the missions distort competition.<\/p>\n\n<p>The authors do not reject policy measures to reduce carbon emissions, but argue that such efforts should be more gradual and technology-neutral. The final section of the book highlights some alternative ways forward, including the question of whether or not to use nuclear power. <\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/book\/10.1007\/978-3-032-15512-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download the book for free.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34943,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[121,404],"class_list":["post-34969","boktips","type-boktips","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews","category-visa-deepl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/boktips\/34969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/boktips"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/boktips"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}