Research Report 2011-05: Current issues and debates in industrial policy , some reflections for the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)

This paper forms part of a broader research project TIPS has been involved in around common regional industrial policies. It provides an overview of key issues in global industrial policy literature. It begins with a brief examination of the link between industrial policy and development and the differences between the orthodox, traditional and subsequent structuralist schools of thought in terms of how structural transformation within an economy occurs. This is followed by a selective review of key debates and issues about what industrial policy is, including: the broad versus narrow industrial policy debate, the conforming to comparative advantage or defying comparative advantage debate, the specialisation versus diversification debate and the policy space debate.