Wherever you go, there you are…

Thank you Blayne!

While industrial policy may well be back, its resurgence is neither uniform nor uncontested. To 'rebuild the ladder' of development, calls for reform of the international monetary & financial system, and for 'green ecological space' @haugejostein.bsky.social, are more urgent than ever 12/12

We contend that these forms of unevenness and asymmetry are both a reflection and an outcome of ongoing contestation over industrial policy in the contemporary global political economy. 11/12

Third, industrial policy is stratified along a three-tiered continuum: advanced economies have few restrictions, geostrategically significant economies benefit from selective flexibility, yet low-income countries face persistent constraints & continued marginalisation. 10/12

Second, the policy tools and instruments mobilised by advanced and developing countries (i.e. the form industrial policy takes) differs significantly, reflecting unequal capacities for experimentation, implementation, and monitoring. 9/12

First, the pace that advanced and developing countries are adopting industrial policies is diverging, suggesting that the former are better positioned to take advantage of the current conjuncture of turbulent change. 8/12

We thus find that industrial policy is being deployed unevenly and asymmetrically across the global economy @rjuhasz.bsky.social @nathanlane.bsky.social @drodrik.bsky.social. This manifests in three ways. 7/12

First, the ability to autonomously pursue industrial policy is deeply shaped by persistent global financial and monetary hierarchies. Second, a country's degree and nature of integration into global supply chains. Third, geopolitical positioning vis-a-vis major powers. 6/12

But does this renewed interest in industrial policy actually translate into greater policy space at the country level? While some ideational and legal constraints have eased, a country's ability to autonomously pursue industrial policy, and the form it takes, is shaped by several factors. 5/12

An alternative 'transformative' vision is advanced by the G20 under emerging economy leadership. It pushes for expanded policy space, technology transfer, and global governance reforms that could enable greater state-led development. 4/12

A 'conservative' vision is advanced by institutions that have long discouraged industrial policy: the WTO, OECD, World Bank, and IMF. They can no longer ignore its global prevalence, yet they seek to discipline/control its proliferation ensure that it is market-oriented. 3/12

Despite the proliferation and return of industrial policy, it signals neither normalisation nor consensus; It is the object of intense contestation over the norms and practices of state interventionism. We first analyse two competing visions of industrial policy. 2/12