State-business relations and industrial policy: current policy and research debates
Abstract
The DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) produces a range of knowledge products aimed at linking the research of DEGRP to a number of research and policy debates on the following themes: agriculture; financial markets; and innovation and growth. This paper relates to the innovation theme and draws together a number of essays that emerged from two sessions on state-business relations and industrial policy during the 2013 UN University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) Conference on 24-25 June in Helsinki, Finland: ‘L2C – Learning to Compete: Industrial Development and Policy in Africa’.
These essays summarise current research and policy debates in the area of state-business relations and industrial policy. The essays provide up-to-date insights into the economics of state-business relations (te Velde, Sen) and the politics and appropriate institutional settings for state-business relations (Buur and Whitfield, McMillan and Rodrik). They also include examples of the impact of state-business relations, e.g. with respect to Africa’s Presidential Investors’ Advisory Councils (Page), and how state-business relations might relate to economic development (Sen) or structural change (McMillan and Rodrik). The essays suggest a number of avenues for further policy research, e.g. constructing a global index on state-business relations (Herzberg and Sisombat) or future policy-relevant research on the importance of the practice of state-business relations or detailed institutional studies of state-business relations (te Velde).
Citation
Willem te Velde, D.; Kunal Sen; Buur, L.; Whitfield, L.; McMillan, M.; Rodrik, D.; Page, J.; Herzberg, B.; Sisombat, L. State-business relations and industrial policy: current policy and research debates. (2013) 35 pp.
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