Industrial Policy, Misallocation, and Aggregate Productivity: Policy Implications of Firm-Specific Distortions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the main features of the Vietnamese economic transition and industrial development pattern analyzing the evolution of the industrial policy formulation in the light of the changes in the country’s productive specialization and competitive position in the international division of labor. The authors also aim at stressing the role exerted by different external paradigm of influence on the Vietnamese policy making and the function of selectivity as an instrument to upgrade the competitiveness of the Vietnamese production system. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a descriptive analysis of the Vietnamese recent economic trends and structural transformation dynamics. It realizes a literature review concerning the academic debate on the role and the effects of industrial policy in Vietnam identifying a categorization between different theoretical perspectives. In addition, it implements an in-depth analysis of the main industrial planning strategies promoted by the government investigating the evolution of the lines of the country’s economic policy agenda. On the basis of the previous analyses, the paper draws out some conclusions about the application of selective criteria in Vietnamese industrial policy interventions. Findings An in-depth examination of the planning prescriptions suggests that the Vietnamese government has undertaken a pronounced paradigm change in the course of last 15 years. The Vietnamese planning approach displays a shift toward a systematic and extended vision concerning the role of industrial policy, which result to be in clear discontinuity with respect to the market-friendly approach supported by Washington institutions. Nevertheless, this configuration outlines several limits characterizing the Vietnamese planning activity, connected to the lack of transparency and efficiency of the governance mechanisms that risk to undermine the effectiveness of the upgrading policies. Originality/value The paper focuses on Vietnam, an emerging economy in transition whose development trajectory has been characterized by peculiar economic and policy dynamics. The hybrid character of the government policy-making approach makes it difficult to identify univocal interpretations concerning the country’s industrial development dynamics and the resulting policy implications. In this perspective, the analysis has shed light on the mechanisms conditioning the formulation of industrial policy in Vietnam, focusing on the external influences exerted on its definition and on the domestic interactions associated to its implementation.

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"Sunny" prospects: an analysis of the photovoltaic industry in Italy

ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ◽

10.3280/efe2012-003008 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 111-133

Author(s):

Bernardina Algieri ◽

Antonio Aquino ◽

Marianna Succurro

Keyword(s):

Industrial Policy ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Incentive Scheme ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Accounting Data ◽

Growth Prospects ◽

Key Features

The present study provides an analysis of the Italian photovoltaic sector (PV). To this purpose, we first evaluate the main characteristics of the Italian PV incentive scheme by focusing on its costs and benefits. The analysis then turns to the evolution of PV demand over recent years, the key features of the Italian PV supply and its performances by identifying the strengths, limitations and growth prospects of the sector. The investigation relies on accounting data of the Italian producers collected from the Bureau van Dijk's Amadeus database, over the 2000- 2010 years. Some industrial policy implications conclude the work.

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What constitutes successful African enterprises? A survey of performance variations in 210 African food processors

International Journal of Emerging Markets ◽

10.1108/ijoem-03-2017-0101 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1835-1854 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michael Wendelboe Hansen ◽

Esther K. Ishengoma ◽

Radha Upadhyaya

Keyword(s):

Industrial Policy ◽

Industrial Development ◽

High Performance ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Business Environment ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Data Set ◽

Content Type ◽

Performance Variations

Purpose To understand African small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance and its antecedents is essential, both from a strategic management and an industrial development perspective. While a substantial literature on African SMEs has emerged in recent years, studies of their performance specifically are few and inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to address this lacuna in the literature by examining variations in performance of 210 East African SMEs. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs OLS and logistic regression and Classify k-means test to analyze performance variations in a unique data set of 210 food processing enterprises in Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia. Findings Three generic types of African SMEs are identified based on performance: laggards, followers and gazelles. The gazelles are typically medium-sized, skill-intensive companies selling relatively differentiated products in niche markets. The laggards are typically small, capital-intensive companies involved in grain milling that adopt a cost differentiation strategy. A key driver of variation in performance is found to be the quality of the external business environment (in particular the quality of intermediary markets), and also capability factors such as the strength of management. Strategy factors such as differentiation and political strategies explain performance variations. Practical implications Among the policy implications are that African industrial policy should focus on improving the functioning of intermediary markets, e.g. by reducing the transaction costs of inter-firm collaboration. Moreover, rather than focusing industrial policy on SMEs per se, policymakers should focus on those types of enterprises that are capable of generating high performance, e.g. skill-intensive enterprises with strong managerial capabilities, engaged in differentiation strategies. Originality/value The paper integrates the extant literature on African SME performance, develops an analytical framework for studying it and presents novel empirical insights based on one of the most detailed surveys of SME performance in the continent to date. The findings have important and tangible implications for literature, as well as for industrial policy.

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The Electronics Industry: Inward Investment versus Indigenous Development—The Policy Debate

Environment and Planning C Government and Policy ◽

10.1068/c100439 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 439-450 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

I Brunskill

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Economic Development ◽

Industrial Policy ◽

Electronics Industry ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Policy Debate ◽

The Public ◽

Indigenous Development ◽

Institutional Economic ◽

Development Network

In this paper the public policy implications of an active government strategy aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the electronics industry in Britain are examined. The author argues that as a general principle industrial policy should be both designed and applied at as low a level as possible. To achieve this a comprehensive but decentralised institutional economic development network will need to be created.

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