What is the path to a better future after the pandemic? Pope Francis has praised the work of an economist who argues that capitalism must reinvent itself if it is to survive. She sets out her case

Conventional wisdom portrays government as a clunky bureaucratic machine that cannot innovate: at best, its role is to fix, regulate, redistribute; it corrects markets when they go wrong. According to this view, civil servants are not as creative and risk-?­taking as the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley, and government should simply level the playing field and then get out of the way – so the risk-?­takers in private business can play the game.

We cannot move on from the key problems we face until we abandon this narrow view. The reinvention of contemporary capitalism calls for a new narrative and new vocabulary for our political economy, using the idea of public purpose to guide policy and business activity. This requires ambition – making sure that the contracts, relationships and messaging result in a more sustainable and just society. And it requires a process that is as inclusive as possible, involving many value creators.

I call this different way of doing things a mission-?­oriented approach. It means choosing directions for the economy and then putting the problems that need solving to get there at the centre of how we design our economic system. It means designing policies that catalyse investment, innovation and collaboration across a wide variety of actors in the economy, engaging both business and citizens. It means asking what kind of markets we want, rather than what problem in the market needs to be fixed. It means using instruments such as loans, grants and procurement to drive the most innovative solutions to tackle specific problems, whether those be getting plastic out of the ocean or narrowing the digital divide.