IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000411/020604.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Building One’s Own Ladder: The Case of China’s Path of State-Assisted Development

Author

Listed:
  • David Castrillón-Kerrigan

Abstract

Recent US administrations have criticized China for taking a path of development marked by allegedly unfair methods of state assistance to the industrial sector. This article sets out to understand if such support is unusual in the light of the very historical experience of development of countries like the United States. The article carries out its analysis through the lens of Ha-joon Chang’s argument on kicking away the ladder, which posits that all developed countries have become so thanks to the ladder of state-assisted development; it argues further that, once they have reached such heights, they have kicked down the ladder for others, falsely peddling the alleged virtues of free markets. An initial review of recent US actions and Chinese history finds that both have followed the path of state-assisted development, making this a less than unusual strategy for development for other countries.

Suggested Citation

  • David Castrillón-Kerrigan, 2020. "Building One’s Own Ladder: The Case of China’s Path of State-Assisted Development," Revista Economía y Región, Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, vol. 14(2), pages 15-27, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000411:020604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.utb.edu.co/economiayregion/article/view/492
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas A. Irwin, 2017. "Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number irwi-2.
    2. Barry Naughton, 2017. "Is China Socialist?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 3-24, Winter.
    3. Lane, Nathaniel, 2016. "Manufacturing Revolutions: Industrial Policy and Industrialization in South Korea," SocArXiv 6tqax, Center for Open Science.
    4. Augusto Cerqua & Guido Pellegrini, 2017. "Industrial policy evaluation in the presence of spillovers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 671-686, October.
    5. Jacks, David S., 2006. "New results on the tariff–growth paradox," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 205-230, August.
    6. Ernest Liu, 2019. "Industrial Policies in Production Networks," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 1883-1948.
    7. Bruce Greenwald & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2006. "Helping Infant Economies Grow: Foundations of Trade Policies for Developing Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 141-146, May.
    8. Douglas A. Irwin, 2017. "Introduction to "Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy"," NBER Chapters, in: Clashing over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy, pages 1-27, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Irwin, Douglas A., 2017. "Clashing over Commerce," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226398969, December.
    10. Barry Naughton, 2007. "The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262640643, April.
    11. Marcus Noland & Howard Pack, 2003. "Industrial Policy in an Era of Globalization: Lessons from Asia," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 358, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nathaniel Lane, 2020. "The New Empirics of Industrial Policy," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 209-234, June.
    2. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3139-3183, October.
    3. Funke, Michael & Wende, Adrian, 2022. "Modeling semiconductor export restrictions and the US-China trade conflict," BOFIT Discussion Papers 13/2022, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    4. Giovanni Dosi & Andrea Roventini & Emmanuele Russo, 2020. "Public Policies And The Art Of Catching Up," Working Papers hal-03242369, HAL.
    5. Kevin L. Kliesen & John A. Tatom, 2018. "Is American manufacturing in decline?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 107-123, July.
    6. World Bank, "undated". "World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, April 2020," World Bank Publications - Reports 33477, The World Bank Group.
    7. Giovanni Dosi & Andrea Roventini & Emanuele Russo, 2021. "Public policies and the art of catching up: matching the historical evidence with a multicountry agent-based model [Catching up, forging ahead, and falling behind]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(4), pages 1011-1036.
    8. Shantayanan Devarajan & Delfin S. Go & Csilla Lakatos & Sherman Robinson & Karen Thierfelder, 2021. "Traders' dilemma: Developing countries' response to trade wars," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 856-878, April.
    9. Robinson, Sherman & Thierfelder, Karen, 2019. "Regional Integration and Global Response to US Protectionism," Conference papers 333116, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Nicole Wu, 2023. "“Restrict foreigners, not robots”: Partisan responses to automation threat," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 505-528, July.
    11. Nina Boberg-Fazlic & Markus Lampe & Maja Uhre Pedersen & Paul Sharp, 2021. "Pandemics and protectionism: evidence from the “Spanish” flu," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Blanchard, Emily & Willmann, Gerald, 2022. "Unequal gains, prolonged pain: A model of protectionist overshooting and escalation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    13. Bernard M. Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis & Douglas R. Nelson, 2023. "Geopolitical competition, globalisation and WTO reform," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1163-1188, May.
    14. Robert Wolfe, 2022. "Is using trade policy for foreign policy a “SNO job”? On linkage, friend-shoring and the challenges for multilateralism," RSCAS Working Papers 2022/74, European University Institute.
    15. Kris James Mitchener & Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke & Kirsten Wandschneider, 2022. "The Smoot-Hawley Trade War," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(647), pages 2500-2533.
    16. Seohee Park, 2023. "Semiconductors at the Intersection of Geoeconomics, Technonationalism, and Global Value Chains," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, August.
    17. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3s3jn8tt5h9mab7fo128gecbhj is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3s3jn8tt5h9mab7fo128gecbhj is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Fiorentini, Riccardo, 2020. "The Persisting US Trade Deficit: Is Protectionistm the Right Answer?," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 73(2), pages 155-186.
    20. Rita Cappariello & Michele Mancini, 2019. "US trade policy in numbers: how exposed is the EU?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 528, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    21. Bowen, T. Renee & Broz, James, 2020. "Designing an International Economic Order: A Research Agenda," CEPR Discussion Papers 15407, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Héctor Romero-Ramírez, 2023. "The trade dependence of Mexico and Canada towards the USA: An input-output approach (1965-1990)/La dependencia comercial de México y Canadá hacia los Estados Unidos: un enfoque de insumo-producto," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 38(2), pages 293-316.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    State-assisted development; kicking away the ladder; China; infant industry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General
    • O21 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Planning Models; Planning Policy
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000411:020604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Economia y Region (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feutbco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.