Socializing the risks and rewards of public investments: Economic, policy, and legal issues

Abstract

We develop a framework for analyzing the role of public agencies in making high-risk investments along the innovation chain and ask how both the risks of innovation and the rewards can be shared between public and private actors. We build on a new approach to innovation policy, which we call market co-creating and shaping, in which the state is not only fixing markets but actively co-creating them. We also look at the legal institutions that determine (and are determined by) the relationship between public and private actors. Policy measures to institutionalize rewards in a way that promote more equitable public–private partnerships can be understood as attempts to mediate asymmetric power relations, tensions and conflicting views among multiple stakeholders, as well as building a shared notion of the value and legitimacy of the role of the state. We conclude by outlining analytical and policy implications and identifying avenues for future research.