Selective industrial policy and ‘sustainable’ structural change. Discussing the political economy of sectoral priorities in the US

Industrial policy for sustainable human development in the post-Covid19 era

“…Contributions within the spectrum of new structuralist economics ( Lin, 2012 , Lin, 2017 ) envisage an explicit role for government intervention to reshape the industrial structure and the organisational configuration of the production system, thus setting economic structures towards a feasible path of structural transformation and making them dynamic and capable of generating new waves of structural change. However, in this perspective industrial policy is also about governing the complex process of institutional building and change that accompany any process of structural transformation ( North, 1990 , Aoki, 2002 ; Chang, 1994; Chang, 2003 , Di Tommaso et al, 2020a , Di Tommaso et al, 2020b ).…”

“…The proper choice of particular targets and tools depends first and foremost on the societal goals to be pursued, and this implies discussing and finding a general agreement about the political priorities to be promoted ( Di Tommaso et al, 2020a ), and ensuring a consistent relation between goals, targets and tools ( Di Tommaso & Schweitzer, 2013 ).…”

“…In this perspective, promoting economic development means encouraging the structural change of economies 23 governing the interrelated structural change of societies ( Di Tommaso et al, 2020a , Di Tommaso et al, 2020b ). It is undeniable that processes of industrialization or servitization radically change the structure of the economy, but it is equally undeniable that they also modify the shape of the underlying society ( UNIDO, 2017 ).…”

“…In this regard, Di Tommaso et al (2020a) refer to the notion of ‘sustainable structural change’ as a process of medium- and long-term change in the relative proportions between sectors of the economy, which entails adjustment phases of the economic and social structures, 27 without compromising the proper functioning of the system. As in triple bottom line approach to human wellbeing ( Sachs, 2012 ) underlying the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ( UN, 2015 ), the sustainability of structural change should thus be assessed keeping into equal account its three dimensions: the economic, social and environmental.…”

“…As remarked, government failures can be even more dangerous when industrial policy is conceived in a more comprehensive way ( Di Tommaso et al, 2020a ). It is therefore important to embed the discussion on industrial policy governance and management within a comprehensive theoretical framework ensuring full understanding of the conditions for the coherence and effectiveness of policy interventions.…”