The Rise of Mission-Oriented State Investment Banks: The Cases of Germany’s KfW and Brazil’s BNDES

Mariana Mazzucato and Caetano Penna

SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: This paper focuses on the rise of state investment banks (SIBs) as lead funders of mission-oriented innovation in various countries’ agendas regarding smart (innovation-led) growth, and not just fixers of ‘market failures’. The market failure justification for public finance fails to capture the active mission-oriented role that such banks are playing in shaping and creating markets, rather than just fixing them. In tackling innovation priorities and shaping new markets, these banks are developing new financial tools that also help to reform the financial system from within, addressing issues of short-termism and financialisation. This paper documents and analyses the roles of such banks, building on the Neo-Schumpeterian work on mission-oriented policies (that is, policies that aim to address societal issues or challenges). The paper presents a rich analytical description of mission-oriented investments in two of the leading SIBs: Brazil’s BNDES and Germany’s KfW. We discuss the directionality of the investments, the various tools used, and the lessons to be learned for evaluating these tools outside of a market failure framework.

Keywords: State investment banks; mission-oriented policy; societal challenges; public finance; financialisation; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G20 L52 O16 O38 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-hme and nep-ino
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sru:ssewps:2015-26

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