Lara Merling

🚨 New paper with @MazzucatoM: A Mission-Aligned World Bank — From Ambition to Delivery. The World Bank's adoption of the language of missions through initiatives like Mission 300, alongside its renewed openness to industrial policy, signals a genuine shift in how it thinks about the role of governments in development. We ask a simple question: how does the Bank's underlying economic model need to evolve to deliver on that ambition? Missions provide direction. Industrial strategy provides the means. But both depend on economic foundations that go beyond fixing market failures and filling financial gaps — shaping markets, directing investment, treating the state as a strategic investor, and strengthening state capacity and capabilities. The opportunity is real. Our paper shows what it would take to build on it. Link 👇

➡️ How can the World Bank move from mission language to mission delivery? Speaking at the 2026 GRN Development Banking Research Conference, @IIPP_UCL Research Fellow @LaraMerling presents her latest paper with @MazzucatoM. 🔗 Read their paper here: buff.ly/djwRaa1

Looking forward to presenting our new @IIPP_UCL paper with @MazzucatoM, at the 2026 @FinanceInCommon GRN Conference. The World Bank’s industrial policy turn is welcome. But moving from ambition to delivery requires shifting the economic foundations of its operations. Our paper maps how. Read our paper: ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/publi… Conference and live stream details: grn-2026.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/…

What if we need both — a moral compass and a structuralist analysis?

“No matter what happens to Cuba, this is a clear signal to other countries that renewables are something that they need to focus on.”

@cashmank_ interviewed by @CNN on our report detailing how Cuba can break free from the US blockade with renewables.👇 edition.cnn.com/2026/05/13/cli…

The @WorldBankGroup has recognised industrial policy can deliver after decades of advising against it. But new conclusions do not automatically produce new economics. The Bank still treats the state as a fixer of market failures rather than a market creator and shaper. The question is not whether governments intervene after markets have failed — it is what kind of economy we want to build in the first place. New in @ProSyn with @LaraMerling on the new economics we need, and how the Global Council on New Economics for the 21st Century, co-chaired with Deputy Prime Minister @Carlos_Cuerpo, aims to deliver updated economic principles organised around justice, equality, sustainability and global solidarity, translated into a framework progressive governments can act on. Read more ➡️ project-syndicate.org/commentary/new… More on the Council ➡️ ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/news/…

The @IMFNews and the @WorldBankGroup sit at the center of an international order whose default advice reflects an economics not supported by real-world evidence, @MazzucatoM and @LaraMerling write. bit.ly/4un8ymf

“[In] Europe’s response to the 2022 energy shock ... $1.8tn in additional costs [was mostly] absorbed by households and public budgets while the shareholders of firms charging higher prices benefited.” Our research cited by @MazzucatoM & @LaraMerling project-syndicate.org/commentary/new…

Spoke with @amanda_mars for @el_pais at the @GPMobilisation in Barcelona about why the global economy needs a new operating system. The old model of capitalism has not delivered, and the geopolitical rupture we are living through makes the case for an alternative more urgent than ever. That is why Deputy Prime Minister @Carlos_Cuerpo and I launched the Global Council on New Economics for the 21st Century: to challenge the cross-cutting assumptions that hold back progress and provide the economic framework progressive governments need.

Join me and @nico_grau, former Finance Minister of Chile, for a discussion on fiscal space, industrial strategy, and the politics of structural transformation, as part of our @IIPP_UCL Public Leaders Series. 5 May | 17:30 | Hybrid | Register here: ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/event…

The Global Council for a Common Good Economy, launched with @Carlos_Cuerpo at the @GPMobilisation in Barcelona, will rethink the economic ideas that guide how governments invest, spend, and shape markets. It will offer an updated economic framework for progressive governments ready to do things differently. More to follow.

“The case for solar in Cuba is so compelling, and what the U.S. is doing is so cruel ... it is creating a humanitarian crisis on purpose.” Our latest briefing by @cashmank_ on Cuba and breaking free of US energy dominance in Yale Climate Connections 👇 yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/04/as-cub…

🆕 A Mission-Aligned World Bank @IIPP_UCL Director @MazzucatoM and @LaraMerling's new working paper considers how the World Bank’s operational architecture & institutional design need to evolve to deliver mission-oriented development. 🔗 Read more here: buff.ly/fYhyHev

Inspiring stuff from @IsabellaMWeber. Serious thinking on how to build an anti-fascist economics and policy proposals to go with it. Great piece with @GregorSemieniuk in @ProSyn on creating a Buyer's Club for oil to keep energy bills down: project-syndicate.org/commentary/oil…

Today, alongside Mariana Mazzucato @MazzucatoM, we launch the Global Council for a Common Good Economy. The old playbook has failed. We need growth with purpose — one that protects people, invests in education, and accelerates the green transition.

✍️ World Bank Missions in Practice At this year's annual IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, @IIPP_UCL Director @MazzucatoM launched her latest paper on 'A Mission-Aligned World Bank: From ambition to delivery', co-authored with @LaraMerling. 🔗 Read more: buff.ly/H2Gy5En

Yesterday, spoke at @WorldBankGroup Knowledge Café with @ArturoFranco and @AlexiaLatortue on what mission delivery requires. World Bank’s Mission ambition is welcome but now it needs to be matched by the Bank’s operational architecture. Our @IIPP_UCL working paper with @LaraMerling sets out what needs to change. Read the working paper ➡️ ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/publi… Read our @devex piece ➡️ devex.com/news/why-the-w…

“Cuba is in the midst of a US-imposed energy and humanitarian crisis.” Our new briefing by @cashmank_ examines how Cuba could break free of US energy dominance with renewables — and why the world should help pay for it. 🔗 transitionsecurity.org/sunrise-after-…

Great to discuss the World Bank's recent paper on Industrial Policy with Chief Economist @IndermitGill. The paper is a welcome turn — now it needs to be completed. In our new paper with @laramerling, we map what a mission-aligned World Bank would look like across five dimensions. Read takeaways in @Devex ➡️ devex.com/news/why-the-w…

If labour’s share of global income had stayed at its 2004 level, workers would have received an additional $2.4 trillion in 2024 alone. Speaking tomorrow at the L20 event hosted by @AFLCIO on what it takes to reverse this: conditionalities on public investment that share both risks and rewards. Wed 15 April | 15:00 ET | In-person & online | Registration links below

In Washington for the @IMFNews @WorldBankGroup Spring Meetings. A fracturing multilateral order demands more than incremental reform — it demands a new economic framework to underpin a progressive multilateralism. Read our paper on a mission-aligned World Bank with @LaraMerling and @ForeignPolicy piece on moving beyond floppy-disk economics. Links in posts below.