As governments confront complex, interconnected challenges that horizontal tools alone may not address, industrial policy is on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions have exposed supply chain vulnerabilities, elevating resilience and economic security, in sectors such as semiconductors and critical raw materials, on policy agendas.
While risks remain, the costs of inaction have increased. Slower productivity growth, widening gaps between frontier and laggard firms, and declining competition and dynamism have renewed interest in well-designed industrial policies to support innovation, resilience, and new market creation. The question is how to do industrial policy well.
The Industry Policy Handbook: From Strategy Design to Implementation is intended as a practical guide to support countries and policymakers in pursuit of their goals and priorities with respect to designing industrial strategies (Part I) and implementing industrial policies (Part II) by building on relevant work across the OECD. The Handbook takes a modular approach by including a (1) checklist, (2) potential actions and (3) peer examples for each Phase. The final section links to other relevant OECD work to further elaborate on the Handbook’s insights and concepts.
Descriptive examples throughout bring attention to a range of design and implementation choices while remaining attentive to context, evidence and potential risks. The OECD is grateful to the Committee on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship delegates who provided many of the examples, and contributed to this improving this work with their feedback and insights.