Industrial Development and Division of Labour: A History of Analysis

A country's industrial policy aims at promoting the development of sectors that often relate to manufacturing and is especially important for less-developed countries as they seek to catch up economically. Industrial Development and Division of Labor re-examines the long history behind the debate on its formulation and organises the discussion around the two types of division of labour found in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. One type has evolved to become the neoclassical perspective and its notion of market failure that has heavily skewed the debate's history. Noting its limitations, including the simplified catch-up learning that is conceived, this book illustrates that arguments for industrial policy that are rejected by Neoclassical economists - so-called 'protectionist' and import-substituting ones - and newer notions involving innovation systems actually share roots with Smith's other type of labour division. They offer broader perspectives on policy that call for establishing elaborate interactive contexts for learning for development.