BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:unctad.org BEGIN:VEVENT UID:6a7ad33054a8c DTSTART:20210623T150000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE DTEND:20210623T163000Z LOCATION:Online\, SUMMARY:UNCTAD15 pre-event: Is industrial policy the key to building back b etter? CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:This webinar is the first of a four-part webinar series. The pu rpose of this series of webinars is to assess what this new consensus mean s and involves\, particularly for developing countries. Tapping into the e xpertise of the recently launched Oxford Handbook on Industrial Policy\, t he webinar series will explore the challenges and areas of debate posed by this new consensus.\n\nBackground\n\nVirtually all of today'\;s advan ced economies have completed their journey from widespread rural poverty t o post-industrial wealth employing policies designed to shift the producti on structure towards higher productivity activities and sectors with progr essively\, better paid jobs and a greater upgrading potential. Such polici es are conventionally called industrial policies.\n\nFrom the late 1970s o nwards\, the debates between proponents and opponents of industrial policy became sharply ideological. In mainstream economic analysis\, in the pron ouncements of international development agencies\, and in policy statement s by Western governments\, industrial policy\, along with the idea that th e state could have a role in effecting structural transformation fell into disrepute.\n\nWith governments everywhere increasingly concerned to accom modate footloose capital and trade\, and investment rules narrowing the po licy space available for policy action\, the time it seemed had come to re ad the last rites on industrial policy. Still\, the late industrializing e conomies in East Asia continued to employ industrial policies as part of t heir successful development stories while advanced economies would resort to similar instruments on a more ad hoc basis in response to specific econ omic challenges. Moreover\, with adherence to neoliberal policies in devel oping countries showing few signs of delivering economic diversification\, strong productivity growth or technological upgrading\, and with many suf fering premature deindustrialization and a growing informalization of econ omic activity\, industrial policy began to return to the policy conversati on\, particularly with the weak recovery after the global financial crisis .\n\nA joint UNCTAD-ILO volume published in 2015 concluded "\;discussi on among economists and policy makers is now increasingly shifting away fr om whether or not to have industrial policy and towards a focus on the obj ectives and scope of industrial policies and "\;how to do it"\; in a way appropriate to each country`s conditions"\;. UNCTAD`s Trade and Development Report 2016 laid out the case for bringing back industrial po licy and began to collaborate with the OECD Development Centre on producin g Productive Transformation Policy Reviews. UNCTAD'\;s World Investmen t Report 2018 identified 84 countries (accounting for 90 per cent of globa l GDP) that had adopted formal industrial policies in the five years to 20 18. A much-discussed IMF Working Paper in 2019 welcomed "\;The Return of the Policy That Shall Not Be Named"\;.\n\nHence\, whether in the co ntext of meeting the SDGs\, tackling the climate emergency\, rewiring supp ly chains in response to the COVID-19 crisis or leveraging new digital tec hnologies\, industrial policy has returned to centre stage of debates over the direction of development strategy at the national level. Internationa l organizations have become more open to discussing industrial policy in d eveloping countries. This is a new consensus across a broad spectrum of ec onomists and policy makers on the on the relevance\, desirability\, and pr acticability of industrial policy.\n\nProgramme\n\nIntroduction: \n\n\nRic hard Kozul-Wright\, Director\, Division on Globalization and Development S trategies\, UNCTAD.\n\n\nModerator\n\n\nJayati Ghosh\, Professor of Econom ics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst\, USA\, formerly at JNU\ , New Delhi\, India.\n\n\nPresenters: \n\n\nHa-Joon Chang\, Reader in the Political Economy of Development\, Faculty of Economics\, University of Ca mbridge.\nMariana Mazzucato\, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value\, University College London\, Founding director of the UCL I nstitute for Innovation and Public Purpose.\nJosé Antonio Ocampo\, Direct or of the Economic and Political Development Concentration in the School o f International and Public Affairs\, Member of the Committee on Global Tho ught and co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue\, Columbia Uni versity.\nArkebe Oqubay\, Ethiopian Senior Minister\, Professor of Practic e at the University of Johannesburg and an Overseas Development Institute Distinguished Fellow Ethiopia.\nRobert Pollin\, Distinguished University P rofessor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research In stitute (PERI)\, University of Massachusetts-Amherst.\n\n\nQuestion &\; Answer Session\n\nClosing remarks\n\nWatch webinar recording\nhttps://www .youtube.com/watch?v=ZQEA6y-OZFA\n\nView meeting on unctad.org\nhttps://un ctad.org/meeting/unctad15-pre-event-industrial-policy-key-building-back-be tter DTSTAMP:20260811T074552Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR