It is conventional wisdom that industrial policies can be at odds with competitive markets. This note examines the historical basis for industrial policy and empirical effects. Although the direct effects of industrial policy are mixed, the indirect effects often involve market distortions. By...

The objective of this study is to assist Bangladesh in becoming a viable player in the IT/ITES industry in five years by identifying the strategies, programs and investments needed in order for the country to leverage ICT for economic growth and competitiveness, as well as for social development...

Tanzania has great potential in the sunflower oil seeds sector, which can be scaled-up as one of its key sectors for industrial development. This policy note provides an overview of the government policies and initiatives in this sector, including the Rural Livelihood Development Company (RLDC)...

The general principle is that it is crucial for the government to provide a stable macroeconomic environment conducive to business development with a clear, transparent and neutral regulatory environment and neutral incentives to all firms and industries. Clear, transparent and neutral...

The Arab Republic of Egypt is yet to meet its exports potential, which has been historically hampered by several domestic market distortions and multiple barriers, resulting in weak export performance and modest regional and global integration. Although the liberalization of the exchange rate in...

South Asia has a huge need to create more and better jobs for a growing population especially in the manufacturing industries where it is underperforming as compared to East Asia. The report examines three critical and relatively understudied drivers of competitiveness: -Economies of...

This paper analyzes Zambian export patterns using a new transaction-level trade data set for the period 1999-2011. The data show that, in international comparison, Zambian exports are exceptionally concentrated (on mining products). This relianc

Recent work on China's accession to the World Trade Organizations pays little attention to the wave of reforms in China in the 1980s and 1990s. These reforms created the preconditions for accession and strongly influenced its outcomes. The preeminence of processing trade at the time of accession...

This paper exploits information from two different datasets to provide a novel and multi-dimensional picture of the engagement of all sub-Saharan African countries in global value chains (GVCs). It documents in detail the nature of the underlying data and the way it is used to construct several...