Refocusing the global economy and global finance around a broader concept of the common good needs to be a global priority to form a more equitable society, said a UCL economist in discussion with the Prime Minister of Barbados at an event featuring a message from the Pope.
At a dialogue held at the Pontifical Academy for Life in the Vatican on 14 November, Professor Mariana Mazzucato (UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose) spoke alongside Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados to argue for refocusing the global economy and international finance around the concept of the common good.
The common good represents a fundamental shift from traditional economics that only fixes market failures after they occur. Instead, it serves as an objective that actively shapes markets, institutions and partnerships to deliver shared goals from the start. Unlike public goods which are framed as corrections to market failures, the common good approach emphasises how the collective processes of value creation, knowledge sharing, and reward distribution matter as much as the outcomes themselves. This framework requires purposeful coordination between government, business, and civil society to tackle systemic challenges like climate change, health inequity, and water security in ways that benefit all of humanity.
The event, which featured a special written message from Pope Francis, followed a private audience with the Pope earlier that day.
Professor Mazzucato said: "These problems have to be addressed collectively, systemically and in and economy-wide way. But if we don't fundamentally reinvent the underlying economics of it… then we are not going to advance, we will just keep talking about the problems."
She characterised expansive and complex economic issues like climate change, health inequity, and water security as 'common good' problems, whose issues can only be fixed collectively, through concerted action around the world and whose benefits will be felt everywhere. They're often issues that fall outside of traditional economic considerations, but which can carry significant implications for a wide range of people, like pollution or economic inequality. Much of her remarks draw significantly from a recent paper on the economics of the common good which outlines how transformative change can be pursued.
This sentiment was echoed in a statement prepared by Pope Francis for the event and read at its outset. Since his appointment as pontiff, Pope Francis has been an outspoken advocate for the destitute and most vulnerable.
Pope Francis's statement read: "The pursuit of the common good and justice are essential and indispensable for the defence of all human life, especially of the most fragile and defenceless, and for the respect of the entire ecosystem that we inhabit."
Likewise, Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, highlighted the significant economic inequalities that persist around the world and how much of that is rooted in historical injustices such as colonialism and slavery. She urged a greater emphasis on human dignity and development in economics and global finance.
Prime Minister Mottley said: "We speak today as a country not because we want attention but because we are rooted in the belief that what we are doing is the right way to bring up the levels of development and maturity and protect those that are the most vulnerable."
She added also that governments of the world generally haven't put enough focus on the common good and overall betterment of the most vulnerable in society.
Prime Minister Mottley said: "We have failed to ensure that the public space is the dominant feature in determining what should be done rather than the pursuit of private wealth."
The event comes as COP29, the global conference on combatting climate change, is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Mottley leads Barbados's efforts to address climate change, reform of the global financial system and economic justice. Barbados, as a UN-designated small-island developing state, is facing serious existential challenges. It, along with numerous other developing nations, have had to face warming temperatures and rising sea levels with few resources and little assistance from larger more developed nations.
Professor Mazzucato said: "We don't have the fiscal space that's required for many countries to actually combat some of these severe problems or our times. They're paying much more in debt than they're paying on education and on social problems, let alone on climate change, both the mitigation and adaptation."
The event comes following her recent work on the economics of water, which similarly recognises water as a global common good rather than a local resource.
The dialogue itself grew out of Professor Mazzucato's appointment to the Pontifical Academy for Life last year.
