Industrial Policy for a Just Structural Change

The current economic and geo-political scenario requires rethinking industrial policy and diving deeper into the link between industrial policy, structural change and human development, given that governing structural transformations also means to go towards more sustainable and just societies. The chapter illustrates this perspective, in which the industrial policy domain enlarges, both in terms of targets and objectives and goes beyond the traditional market failure perspective, embedding strategic and meta-economic objectives. It goes beyond the mere manufacturing sector to include financial institutions, business associations, training and education institutions. At the same time the attempt is to consider possible government failures in the policy process, calling for a deeper debate on their remedies. In discussing these issues, the chapter builds a view of industrial policy as a practice that ultimately should pursue normative social goals related to equity, human development and inclusion.