Efficiency, Finance, and Varieties of Industrial Policy

This volume revisits the role of industrial policy, discussing the most effective use of industrial policies in learning economies, development finance, and promoting investment in regional and global contexts. Also included are in-depth case studies of Japan and India’s experience with industrial policy in the banking and private sector.

Akbar Noman is senior fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. He is coeditor, with Joseph E. Stiglitz, of Industrial Policy and Economic Transformation in Africa (Columbia, 2015).

Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001), his books include Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress (Columbia, 2014) and Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity (2015).

Mushtaq Khan, SOAS, University of London:
An excellent addition to the literature on learning, industrial, and technology policies. The links between capabilities, learning and productivity are complex and unlikely to spontaneously emerge. Effective policies have to take into account differences in political contexts, capability levels and structures of national economies, as well as global institutions and opportunities. This book adds to our understanding of the complexity of these challenges as well as the necessity of addressing them.

Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics and Political Science and President, British Academy:
Learning and ideas are public assets; capital markets have deep problems in managing longer-term risk. That is enough to tell us that market structures and government policies around finance and technology are likely to be critical to growth in all economies whether more advanced or less advanced. That means that industrial policy matters. The challenge is how to do it well and in a way that fosters rather than hinders entrepreneurship and creativity. That is why this book is so important. It is full of insight and empirical investigation and covers a very broad range of countries and economies. It is an immensely valuable contribution.