Race to the bottom: The perils of decentralized industrial policy in free trade blocs

Can developing countries in today’s world replicate the export-led model of growth by using industrial policies following the success stories of the last century? We show how small open economies face an “openness dilemma” balancing the gains from trade by entering into regional free trade agreements and achieving economies of scale by using industrial policies.

September 2025 · Ahmad Lashkaripour, Po-Shyan Wu

New Industrial Policy

This essay develops a framework to study industrial policies in modern globally integrated economies and reviews recent theoretical and empirical advances in the literature.

August 2025 · Ahmad Lashkaripour, Po-Shyan Wu