{"id":34960,"date":"2026-03-06T10:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/?p=34960"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:29:09","slug":"book-tips-when-government-mismanages-innovation-researchers-examine-green-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/book-tips-when-government-mismanages-innovation-researchers-examine-green-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK TIPS | When government mismanages innovation: researchers examine ‘Green Deals’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mission-oriented innovation policy has gained a lot of traction among politicians and government officials, not least in Europe. In the book 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\n\n

However, there are critical voices in the scientific community. In the books Questioning the Entrepreneurial State: Status-quo, Pitfalls, and the Need for Credible Innovation Policy<\/em><\/a> (2022) and 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\n\n

The editors of Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy<\/em> – Magnus Henrekson, Christian Sandstr\u00f6m and Mikael Stenkula – have now published a new book – A Green Entrepreneurial State? Exploring the Pitfalls of Green Deals <\/em> (open access – link at the end).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the book, they and 17 other researchers examine various forms of ‘Green Deals’, 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\n\n

The book highlights what the authors consider to be a series of failed and problematic projects and policies. Examples include Germany’s Energiwende (transformation to renewable energy), Italy’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 in the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the authors, there are several factors that cause mission-oriented policies to fail. Among others, they point to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 that complex problems do not lend themselves to top-down management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 policy makers lack the information needed to design missions to be effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 the missions distort competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n

Download the book \u2013 free.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also:
Book tip\/interview – The entrepreneurial state is questioned<\/a>
Book tip – The entrepreneurial state is questioned again<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mission-oriented innovation policies have gained a lot of traction among politicians and government officials, not least in Europe. In her book Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021), researcher Mariana Mazzucato argues that traditional market solutions cannot be relied on to solve major societal challenges. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":34956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[125,736,122,162,123],"class_list":["post-34960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-green-deal","tag-innovation-en","tag-mission-oriented-innovation-policy","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34964,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34960\/revisions\/34964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esbri.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}