Publication: Does What You Export Matter? In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policies
Date
2012
ISSN
Published
2012
Author(s)
Abstract
Does the content of what economies
export matter for development? And, if it does, can
governments improve on the export basket that the market
generates through the shaping of industrial policy? This
book considers these questions by reviewing relevant
literature and taking stock of what is known from
conceptual, empirical, and policy viewpoints. A large
literature answers affirmatively to the first question and
suggests the characteristics that distinguish desirable
exports. More prosaically, but no less controversially,
goods which are intensive in unskilled labor are thought to
promote 'pro-poor' or 'shared growth,'
whereas those which are skilled-labor intensive are thought
to generate positive externalities for society as a whole.
Concerns about macroeconomic stability have led to a focus
on the overall composition of the export basket. This book
revisits many of these arguments conceptually and, wherever
possible, imports heuristic approaches into frameworks
where, as more familiar arguments, they can be held up to
the light, rotated, and their facets examined for brilliance
or flaws. Second, the book examines what emerges empirically
as a basis for policy design. Specifically, given certain
conceptual arguments in favor of public sector intervention,
do available data and empirical methods allow for actually
doing so with a high degree of confidence? In asking this
question, the book assumes that policy makers are competent
and seek to raise the welfare of their citizens. This
assumption permits sidestepping the debate about whether
government failures trump market failures generically: In
this sense, the book attempts to 'give industrial
policy a chance.'
Citation
“Lederman, Daniel; Maloney, William F.. 2012. Does What You Export Matter? In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policies. Latin America Development Forum. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/9371 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”