In this episode, Economics Explained host Gene Tunny discusses innovation and digital public goods with his colleague Dr Nicholas Gruen, CEO of Lateral Economics. Nicholas is a well-known Australian economist, entrepreneur, and angel investor. Australia’s former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner once described Nicholas as “Australia’s foremost public intellectual.”

Many listeners will know of Nicholas’s work, through his published articles, reports and blog posts at Club Troppo and the Mandarin. He’s frequently quoted in national and international media, including the Financial Times. 

It’s challenging to summarise Nicholas’s wide-ranging career. He’s worked as a ministerial adviser and as a member of the Productivity Commission, and he has chaired several boards, including those of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation, Innovation Australia, and, in its early days, the data science start up Kaggle, which was later acquired by Google. Nicholas certainly has the track record to be a credible authority on innovation.

Gene's wide ranging conversation with Nicholas includes discussion of:

• innovation
• knowledge as a public good
• digital public goods
• government as impresario
• Nicholas's upcoming book on the public goods of the 21st century
• climate change policy
• citizens' juries

If you're interested in Nicholas's Government as Impresario report mentioned in the podcast, you can find it on the Nesta website:

Government as Impresario