Recovery from the economic downturn attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic calls for an inclusive and sustainable economic transformation capable of economic growth that is conducive to the broader societal and environmental objectives to be achieved over the coming decade. The impact of the pandemic has exacerbated the social crises prevalent in many parts of the world before its onset and created new ones to the extent that the risk today is not only to see decades of progress in fighting poverty around the world obliterated, but also public and private leadership retracting on commitments and actions taken to protect the environment at a time when the very opposite is needed: economic transformation that can provide economic growth while meeting the needs of society and the environment.

Building the “markets of tomorrow” to achieve such economic transformation requires a creative combination of breakthrough technological and socio-institutional innovation. Economic value is produced by means of the technological capabilities available and organized and distributed through the formal and informal institutions that have been developed to structure behaviour: from public policies and procedures to habits and norms, shared beliefs and perceptions. Each market of tomorrow is a subset of the broader technological and socio-institutional systems most closely linked to the exchange of a specific good, service or asset. Conceptually, a new market builds on and replaces previous ones and can become a piece of a new paradigm,driving economic transformation. The goal of such innovation would be to produce not only more or better, but to transform economies by establishing new technological and institutional systems to resolve the most pressing societal issues. 

Twenty markets of tomorrow are considered promising in that they could support inclusive and sustainable revival of growth. The establishment of some will rely on advances in breakthrough technological innovation (e.g. broad-spectrum antivirals, space flights), others will require radically new social and institutional structures (e.g. skills capital, water rights and quality credits), others still a combination of both (e.g. data, genes and DNA sequences). Each of these markets could offer potential benefits across multiple dimensions, for example, by helping to increase well-being and empower people (e.g. precision medicines and orphan drugs, EdTech and reskilling services), advance human knowledge and understanding (e.g. artificial intelligence, satellite services) and protect the environment (e.g. electric vehicles, hydrogen). Some of them have a global (e.g. greenhouse gas allowances) and others might have a stronger national (e.g. skills capital) or local component (e.g. water rights and quality credits).