2.6 — An Intellectual History of Trade IV: Increasing Returns & Industrial Policy — Readings
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Required Readings:
- Powell, 2004, “State Development Planning: Did it Create an East Asian Miracle?”
- Stiglitz, 2014, “Creating a Learning Society”
- Gangotena and Safner, 2020, “The Production of Increasing Returns: Physical Technology, Institutional Technology, and the Pitfalls of Production Functions” (at least up to section 2.1)
John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight covers the trade policies (in 2018) of the current administration, the brainchild of economist Peter Navarro.
Optional Readings
- Krugman, 1993, “What Do Undergrads Need to Know About Trade?”
- Safner, 2013, “City-State on a Hill: The Institutional History Behind the Paradox of Modern Singapore”
Much of my intellectual history series of lectures comes from Chapters 5-9 of Douglas Irwin’sOne of the best economic historians on trade.
excellent book:
Questions To Help Your Reading
- What is the role of the State in promoting development?
- How do we identify which industries might be worth protecting via industrial policy?
- What are the supposed successes of industrial policy (e.g. Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong) and how/why were they succesful?
- What are the politics of the infant industry argument?
- What should our trade policy be, and what should we tell other poor countries to do, if they want rapid growth?