Prospects and Limits of Industrial Policy in East Asia in the Age of Globalization

The general topic of this research project is the question of how the relationship between governments and markets will change in the face of increasing global integration. Within that context the focus of the project is on the more specific question of whether the Japanese or East Asian conception of state-led development (i.e. industrial policy), that has been regarded by many as a successful development model for East Asia in the past, bears elements for a new concept of industrial policy in the age of globalization.

It is quite obvious that traditional measures of a protective and interventionist industrial policy widely used in Japan and Korea in the past, cannot be successfully sustained in an global environment. However, that does not necessarily imply that governments refrain from any influence in the industrial sector. Moreover, it seems possible that governments can play a positive roles in situations where market forces fail to provide the necessary information (maybe one lesson learned from the Asian Crisis). In his presentation Mr. Goydke will provide some preliminary findings concerning the question of whether a new conception of Industrial Policy exists in Japan.

Tim Goydke is a research associate at the Institute for East Asian Studies, Department for East Asian Economic Studies/Japan, at Duisburg University, Germany. For a period of 3 months he is currently a visiting researcher at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University, Japan. Research interests: economic and industrial policy in Japan and Korea, institutional developments and development patterns in East Asia.