Description
Along with the disillusionment in Latin America & the Caribbean surrounding the Washington Consensus's sidelining of the role of public interventions in the economy has come a new shift towards a more proactive state approach towards economic intervention and growth. Carried out while the authors were both at the Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean, this study examines lessons for this new Latin American state interventionism from the industrial policy experiences of 10 countries outside the region that have experienced processes of sustained economic catch-up or that have done better that Latin American countries with similar resource endowments. The authors identify 11 principles of institutional, operational, and managerial relevance from the examination of these countries and then proceed to assess how well Latin American countries currently measure-up against these principles. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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This book is motivated by the emerging rehabilitation of industrial policies as a tool for supporting economic transformation and high rates of growth in developing countries. It argues that underperforming disciples of the Washington Consensus’ 'market fundamentalism' should learn and practice the art of systemic industrial policies, which requires a medium-long term strategic perspective and intelligent proactive state interventions in markets. However, it also stresses that rehabilitation requires that industrial policies be developed and implemented in a context of home- grown public-private alliances that avoid state 'capture' by special interests. It first examines the 'how' of industrial policy in the public sectors of ten non-Latin American countries in Asia, Europe, and Oceania that have been successful in promoting economic catch-up with rich countries, or have performed better than Latin American countries with similar resource endowments. The book defines '10+1' generic First Principles for the use, design, and execution of modern industrial policies, and then examines the experiences of nine Latin American and Caribbean governments against these First Principles. The authors identify large gaps in the organizational and operational effectiveness of their public sectors, and suggest ways to close these gaps.
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