We focus on special characteristics of the manufacturing sector, in terms of employment generation and productivity growth, that enable the rapid, resilient economic catch-up of developing countries. We consider the 'developer's dilemma' and the relationship between manufacturing value added or...

We examine the extent to which two of Africa’s leading gold mining economies, Ghana and Tanzania, have adopted transformative local procurement policies to enhance backward linkages from the minerals sector. We assess the impact that evolving legislation in the gold industry has had on...

India presents an unique example of manufacturing capability in most sectors, but low integration into GVCs. This paper examines the reasons for India's low integration into GVCs, especially in the manufacturing sector. It argues that one of the reasons for India's low integration into GVCs is...

Multinational production has become increasingly important in recent decades. Countries resort to different industrial policies to influence the geography of this production. In this paper, we focus on a ubiquitous “soft” industrial policy that aims at reducing information barriers -...

In this scooping paper on the Tunisian economy we review the historical background of the economy which has undergone substantial structural change since independence in 1956. In particular we emphasize that past record of consistent growth has often masked inequality, regional disparities and...

The paper analyses the enigmatic high growth in Ethiopia from 2004 to 2015 (10.9% p.a.) and gauges the prospects for the future. In 2000, Ethiopia was the poorest country on the globe in per capita GDP - a mere 124 USD in current prices. The main finding is that the take-off was driven by...

In contrast to the limited impact of aggregate-level productive development policies (PDPs) in Argentina, micro-level PDPs in several sectors have proven highly successful. This study seeks to understand how these PDPs succeeded in a challenging environment, what kinds of mechanisms were...

While Mexico has potential to grow rapidly, its economic growth has remained low for the past three decades. There is no consensus on the country s development path or on how to achieve specific goals. Since the policy debate remains ideological and lacks pragmatism, productive development...