Industrial policy choice during the crisis era

Using an extensive database of non-macroeconomic state interventions implemented since the global economic crisis began, this paper provides quantitative evidence on the resort to selectivity by several major economic powers. The propensity to promote certain sectors, certain firms within sectors, and domestic over commercial interests is contrasted across jurisdictions. At least one prominent contention in the industrial policy literature is not borne out in the data, and certain cross-country and cross-sectoral variations found here could benefit from further analysis. A crisis-era shift towards selectivity and away from the ‘level playing field’ can be detected in the major trading nations. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.