Arbeitspapier

Public policies and the art of catching up: Matching the historical evidence with a multi-country agent-based model

In this paper, we study the effects of industrial policies on international convergence using a multi-country agent-based model which builds upon Dosi et al. (2019b). The model features a group of microfounded economies, with evolving industries, populated by heterogeneous firms that compete in international markets. In each country, technological change is driven by firms' activities of search and innovation, while aggregate demand formation and distribution follows Keynesian dynamics. Interactions among countries take place via trade flows and international technological imitation. We employ the model to assess the different strategies that laggard countries can adopt to catch up with leaders: market-friendly policies; industrial policies targeting the development of firms' capabilities and R&D investments, as well as trade restrictions for infant industry protection; protectionist policies focusing on tariffs only. We find that markets cannot do the magic: in absence of government interventions, laggards will continue to fall behind. On the contrary, industrial policies can successfully drive international convergence among leaders and laggards, while protectionism alone is not necessary to support catching up and countries get stuck in a sort of middle-income trap. Finally, in a global trade war, where developed economies impose retaliatory tariffs, both laggards and leaders are worse off and world productivity growth slows down.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: LEM Working Paper Series ; No. 2020/10

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Open Economy Macroeconomics
Economic Growth of Open Economies
Thema
Endogenous growth
catching up
technology-gaps
industrial policies
agent-based models

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Dosi, Giovanni
Roventini, Andrea
Russo, Emanule
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM)
(wo)
Pisa
(wann)
2020

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Dosi, Giovanni
  • Roventini, Andrea
  • Russo, Emanule
  • Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM)

Entstanden

  • 2020

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