DPR Debate Should Industrial Policy in Developing Countries Conform to Comparative Advantage or Defy it? A

This is the first in an occasional series of DPR Debates, designed to illuminate specific issues of international development policy. Each debate will bring together two well-known researchers or practitioners, giving them the opportunity, over three rounds, to test and challenge each other’s ideas. The debates are intended to be robust but accessible, rooted in rigorous research but useful to the wide readership of Development Policy Review. The first debate focuses on the question of whether policies to encourage industrialisation and industrial upgrading should conform to current comparative advantage or aim to miss out steps on the ladder: textiles first or mobile phones? The first position might be thought to be associated with neo-liberal theory which eschews intervention, the second with more structuralist policies which favour government support and extended infant-industry protection. The debate is more subtle than that, however. Both protagonists favour government intervention, but in different ways and for different purposes. The two protagonists are: • Justin Yifu Lin, since June 2008 Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank. Previously for 15 years Professor and Founding Director o