Business needs government to harness local comparative advantages and national competitiveness; and governments need business to create wealth, jobs, and economic prosperity.

This course examines, under this prism, novel industrial policy initiatives in Europe and beyond, in response to the green and digital transitions and the supply chain disruptions since the Covid lockdowns.

Following a long period of deregulation and market liberalisation, the recent crises (COVID, supply chain disruptions) and continuing global challenges (automation, climate, energy transition) have led to the realisation that markets and businesses need to the assistance of the state to meet their social and economic goals. In this course, we examine analytically and empirically the industrial and related policies to achieve these aims in the European context. 

Combining an accessible treatment of theory with an applied focus, the course offers an excellent introduction to some of the key policy questions on the management of economic growth today. We will discuss the main frameworks for industrial policy, compare and evaluate recent strategies in the EU and other advanced capitalist democracies, and the articulation of industrial policies with other policy areas.

Lectures, seminars and other exercises, will allow students to explore real-world cases of industrial policy, both at the macro (national industrial strategies) and at the micro levels (specific sectoral interventions). We will analyse and compare the national industrial strategies of France (2), Germany (2) and the UK (2); and work on case studies such as the Franco-German car battery initiative and the UK Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Attention will also be directed to the EU ‘Strategic Autonomy’ policy discussions and the EU’s strategy for the ‘twin’ transitions, from its inception to its current state of the art.