From Imitation to Innovation: Public Policy for Industrial Transformation

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2020

Structural change towards sectors which are more technologically intensive is a central part of economic development. Such a process will not take place if the developing economy relies exclusively on market forces. Pathdependence, tacitness in technological capabilities and increasing returns imply that industrial policy is a necessary condition for the country to escape from low-growth, low-learning traps associated with a pattern of specialization based on low-tech sectors. The experience of Latin America shows that despite its many problems, structural change towards more knowledge-intensive sectors did occur in the heydays of industrial policy in the region and that Latin America consistently fell behind when such policies where abandoned after the external debt crisis of the early 1980s.

2014

Building on a description and assessment of the contributions of different economic traditions (neoclassical, structural, institutional and evolutionary) to the analysis of pol- icies in support of structural transformation and the generation of productive jobs, this book argues that industrial policy goes beyond targeting preferred economic activities, sectors and technologies. It also includes the challenge of accelerating learning and the creation of productive capabilities. This perspective encourages a broad and integrated approach to industrial policy. Only a coherent set of investment, trade, technology, edu- cation and training policies supported by macroeconomic, financial and labour market policies can adequately respond to the myriad challenges of learning and structural transformation faced by countries aiming at achieving development objectives. The book contains analyses of national and sectoral experiences in Costa Rica, the Republic of Korea, India, Brazil, China, South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. Practical lessons and fundamental principles for industrial policy design and implementation are distilled from the country case studies. Given the fact that many countries today engage in industrial policy, this collection of contributions on theory and practice can be helpful to policy-makers and practitioners in making industrial policy work for growth, jobs and development.

Revue Interventions économiques. Papers in Political Economy, 2017

Latin America has experienced a significant transformation in recent years. Despite some of the countries had major economic and social crisis at the end of the twentieth century, between 2003 and 2008 the region has experienced its most remarkable expansionary period since the 1970s. One of the new features registered during the period was the increase in the manufacturing sector where industrial policy combined traditional instruments to promote investment with other tools directed towards fostering innovation and technological modernization. At the same time, still using instruments and horizontal programs, in many countries there was a greater emphasis on the implementation of targeted and selective policies and to articulate the various instruments into a more general framework of productive development planning. The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of recent industrial policies (IPs) and their outcomes in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. To do this, we will focus on the objectives and tools of IPs since 2003, their differences vis-à-vis those followed in the 1990s, and their changes throughout the period 2003-2015. We will also study the similarities and differences in national approaches depending on the macroeconomic cycles and the dynamic of the balance of payments, the specialization profiles and the strategies of development.

Research Policy, 1999

The nature, timing and mix of interventionist policies are more important than the argument between having an industrial policy or letting the market rule. Several Asian countries have adopted an economic development policy of 'competitive protectionism', targeting nascent industries and assisting their technological advance so that they can export their products. Despite efforts to develop advanced technologies locally, some Latin American countries embraced 'autarchic protectionism', organizing production based upon older imported technologies behind national tariff walls primarily for domestic use. In this paper we compare Brazilian and Korean experience to analyze why interventionist technology policies failed in the former country even as they succeeded in the latter. A case study of a Brazilian university and its incubator facility mirrors developments in national technology policies. Latin American innovation policy is moving toward a 'triple helix' of cooperative relations among university, industry and government.

The World Bank eBooks, 2013

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Revista de Estudios Sociales, 2019

This brief article seeks to introduce the reader to this special number on industrialization in contemporary Latin America. It does so considering three issues. First, the importance of industrialization in sustaining high rates of economic growth leading to high levels of income per capita. Second, the long-standing debate in global historiography regarding the successes and failures of industrial policy: markets vs. states. Lastly, Latin America´s industrial trajectory through the lenses of four historiographical tendencies, and the ways in which each of the four original papers relate to the extant literature, and contribute to enhancing our understanding of one of the most important economic transformations in the history of the region.

CEPAL Review, 1999

Successful growth experiences around the world have often been associated with active productive development policies (PDPs). 1 Today's advanced economies owe much to them. To mention one of many recent examples, the republic of Korea, probably the most successful development story of the 20 th century, shaped its economy with active policies in support of specific sectors at different stages of development, from fertilizers to shipbuilding, automobiles and more recently electronics. At the same time, industrial policy has often done more harm than good. In Latin America and the Caribbean, in particular, misguided industrial policies gave them a bad name. For a while, the prevailing view in the region was that the best industrial policy was the one that did not exist. However, shunning active policies has not produced the desired results. Low productivity and slow catching up in the region are now leading countries to take a fresh look at policy initiatives that go beyond macroeconomic stabilization and market-friendly structural reforms. Countries are actively searching Part I The Role of Productive Development Policies