128. Has industrial policy contributed significantly to Japan’s economic growth?
The extent to which industrial policy has contributed to Japan’s economic growth is unclear.
Japan has benefited from a high domestic savings rate, an educated and highly motivated
labor force, good labor management relations, a shift of labor from low-productivity sectors
to high-productivity manufacturing, entrepreneurs willing to assume risks, and the like. These
factors have enhanced Japan’s transformation from a low-technology nation to a high-
technology nation. It is debatable how rapidly this transformation would have occurred in the
absence of an industrial policy. Although Japan has the most visible industrial policy of the
industrial nations, the importance of that policy to Japan should not be exaggerated.
United States – BUSPROG: Analytic Reflective Thi – BUSPROG: Reflective Thinking
United States – BUSPROG: Promotion – BUSPROG: Analytic
United States – PA – DISC: International trade and fi – DISC: International trade and finance
Industrial Policy of Japan
129. Explain how advocates of strategic trade policy differ from the classical free traders in their treatment of
externalities?
Advocates of strategic trade policy recognize that the classical argument for free trade
considered externalities at length. The difference, they maintain, is that the classical theory
was based on perfect competition and thus could not appreciate the most likely source of the
externality, whereas modern theories based on imperfect competition can. The externality in
question is the ability of companies to capture the fruits of expensive innovation. Classical
theory based on perfect competition neglected this factor because large fixed costs are
involved in innovation and research and development, and such costs ensure that the number
of competitors in an industry will be small.
United States – BUSPROG: Analytic Reflective Thi – BUSPROG: Reflective Thinking
United States – BUSPROG: Promotion – BUSPROG: Analytic
United States – PA – DISC: International trade and fi – DISC: International trade and finance
Industrial Policies of the United States