Efficiency, Finance, and Varieties of Industrial Policy

Industrial policy, once relegated to the trash bin by the orthodoxy of recent decades, is undergoing a resurgence of interest. This interest pertains not only to resource allocation, technological improvements, and the modernization of industries, but also is a vital component of sustainability, learning, and economic transformation in all sectors, including agriculture. A rich set of complementary institutions, shared behavioral norms, and public policies have sustained economic growth from Britain's industrial revolution onward. This volume revisits the role of industrial policy in the success of these strategies and what it can offer developed and developing economies today, featuring essays from experts on the most effective use of industrial policies in learning economies, development finance, and the promotion of investment in regional and global contexts. Also included are in-depth case studies of experience with industrial policy in the banking and private sectors, including in Japan and India. One essay revisits the theoretical and conceptual foundations of industrial policy from a structural economics and growth theory perspective, and another describes the models, packages, and transformation cycles that constitute a variety of approaches to design and implementation. Throughout, the book emphasizes industrial policies for facilitating high-quality growth, ways of managing and minimizing their risks, and realizing more sustainable and transformational development. -- from dust jacket.