Clusters and comparative advantage:: Implications for industrial policy

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rodriguez-Clare, Andres
• 署名单位: Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2005.09.001
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 43-57
• 关键词: Marshallian externalities; clusters; multiple equilibria; comparative advantage; import substitution; Industrial policy

摘要

Cases of industrial agglomeration or clusters arise in the presence of industry-specific and local externalities, also called Marshallian externalities. The standard argument is that such externalities may justify a policy of infant-industry protection to allow and encourage clusters to emerge. In this paper I explore this carefully, and show that different policy implications emerge under a more realistic modeling of clusters. In particular, rather than distorting prices to promote clusters in advanced sectors that may exhibit strong clustering possibilities, countries should focus instead on promoting clustering in current sectors, which have revealed to have the strongest comparative advantage. Import substitution is not a proper way to achieve this. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.