'Building back better' - but on what foundations?

This is the third and final of the Green Templeton Lectures 2021, in partnership with Franklin Templeton, on the theme ‘Navigating the COVID challenge’.

Most economic policy development by governments since the Reagan/Thatcher era has been underpinned by the foundational neo-liberal idea that good policy seeks to maximise the role of markets and minimise that of public institutions.

Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz has been a notable critic of this faith in markets and scepticism of government. In a number of highly regarded studies, he has assembled theory and evidence in support of his views, work that was recognised in his Nobel Prize.

Drawing on this academic work and his practical, top-level policy making roles in Washington, with the Clinton Administration and the World Bank, he has also set out an alternative view of what a fit-for-purpose idea of good policy development should comprise, in the 21st Century, recognizing a broader vision of societal welfare and sustainability beyond just that measured by GDP.

Professor Stiglitz will briefly review the main reservations he had over the dominant neoliberal thinking. Then he will sketch out the key elements of his new thinking about an alternative foundational notion of policy development that both addresses these reservations and is more closely aligned with modern concerns over ESG.