[3] Mazzucato has published widely in the fields of innovation economics, value theory and political economy and is the author of various books, including The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs.

[10] In 2021, in recognition of her contributions to economic theory and policy, Mazzucato received the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana from the Italian President, Italy's highest civilian honour.

[25][26] In 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mazzucato to be a member of his Economic Advisory Council, a position where she remains active in providing recommendations for building sustainable and inclusive development.

[42] In 2016, Mazzucato became the first woman to give the Raúl Prebisch Lecture organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile.

[49] Mazzucato's research has addressed the relationship between innovation, government policy, financial markets and economic growth, spanning the company, industry and national level.

[53] Earlier work had found that stock price volatility tends to be highest, at the firm and industry level, when technological innovation is the most radical.

[59][60] The book pointed to the key role that she believes government actors have played in driving radical innovations in their early stages, especially in the US.

In a well-known chapter examining the iPhone, she outlines how the technologies that make it 'smart' – the internet, GPS, its touchscreen display and the voice-activated Siri – were all government-funded.

[63] Later work has built on the conclusion of The Entrepreneurial State that the socialisation of risks for radical innovation requires rethinking how the rewards are privatised with the aim of producing more inclusive growth.

[65] In 2018, Mazzucato published a second major book, The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy, which addressed the fundamental concept of value in economic theory.

[67][68][69] This has led her to propose the state's role in the economy as one of creating and shaping new markets, especially in a "mission-oriented" way that addresses key societal challenges.

[71] Swedish author and historian of ideas, Johan Norberg, dedicated almost an entire chapter in his 2023 book, The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World, to criticizing Mazzucato's work, stating, "The interesting thing is not that she is wrong again but that she is always wrong in the same way – she always believes it[clarification needed] must involve a big, important plan and a massive government push.

In an academic review, Christian Sandström objects that it is misleading to talk about everything important in a smartphone without mentioning the transistor, the integrated circuit, the digital image sensor and many other things developed by commercial interests.

[62][74] Martin Wolf wrote in the Financial Times that The Entrepreneurial State offers "a controversial thesis" but "is basically right" and warns that the "failure to recognise the role of the government in driving innovation may well be the greatest threat to rising prosperity".

[81] Mission Economy received a more mixed reception and some commentators and fellow economists have been sceptical of Mazzucato's idealism on big government intervention.

[83] Other economists have been more supportive of Mazzucato's faith in public policy and praised the application of the Apollo 11 archetype to modern challenges.

[84] Jayati Ghosh, writing for Nature, wrote that Mission Economy is a "timely and optimistic vision" of solving major problems through directed private and public investment which may seem simple and obvious, but implies revolutionising the role for governments.

[69] In 2023, the New Statesman named Mazzucato as the thirty-second most powerful left-wing figure in the UK, crediting her with significantly influencing interventionist policy across the globe.