Regional Industrialization: Role of Industrial Policy

This chapter examines the role of industrial policy in the different manufacturing revolutions and shows that industrialisation never occurs without strong supporting industrial policy, providing the enabling conditions for the deep structural changes involved, namely infrastructure, capabilities, especially human capital, and often creation of the first factories, especially in strategic sectors. This is true for pioneers in industrialisation, namely Britain in the 18th century and the USA in the 19th century, as well as later industrialisers such as continental European countries in the 19th and 20th century and East Asian countries after World War II. Industrialisation is associated to the creation and consolidation of Nation States, leading to national perspectives on industrial development and industrial policy, at the expense of regional imbalances.