IPD/JICA Task Force Meeting on Industrial Policy and Transformation at Columbia University

After a prolonged neglect, there has been of late a revival of interest in the nexus of issues of economic transformation, industrialization and industrial policies. The Task Force aims to build on and foster this revival.

Whilst industrial policies are highly relevant to industrialization, the focus is not confined to industry. The term is used in a broader sense to refer to policies that promote economic transformation and learning, including in modern services and agriculture. It would be more accurate to refer to them as learning, industrial and technology (LIT) policies (but given the familiarity with the term, industrial policies, the two may be used interchangeably). This was the second  meeting of a task force jointly established by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) at Columbia University and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since our first successful meeting in Jordan on June 2014. The one and a half day Task Force meeting drew 18 distinguished economists around the world. Each presented innovative studies on the topic.