Effective state-business relations (SBRs) have been lacking in industrial policy thinking despite the strong theoretical case for SBRs. The empirical study of state-business relations in developing countries has emerged only recently, with notable contributions starting in the mid-1990s,...

The debate among economists about an optimal growth recipe has been the subject of competing "narratives." We identify four major growth narratives using the text analytics of IMF country reports over 1978-2019. The narrative "Economic Structure"-services, manufacturing, and agriculture-has been...

As the Chinese economy continues to decelerate, the central government is investing heavily in innovation, doubling down on research and development (R&D) spending and STEM-oriented human capital. In this paper, we assess China's progress so far, looking at the inputs to innovation (R&D and...

The EU has experienced different options to support the emergence of champions: (i) targeted support for strategic sectors and large technology initiatives (e.g. Airbus, Ariane, HDTV and ESPRIT); (ii) a support of declining sectors with the ECSC Treaty; and (iii) an emphasis on horizontal...

The paper evaluates strategies for developing successful special economic zones and transnational zones for Southern African countries to spur growth and employment. Most special economic zones implemented in Southern Africa have largely failed to bring adequate growth and employment due to...