Made in Africa: Industrial Policy in Ethiopia

Abstract

Made in Africa presents the findings of original field research into the design, practice, and varied outcomes of industrial policy in different sectors in Ethiopia. The book explores how and why the outcomes of industrial policy are shaped by particular factors in different industries. The findings are discussed against the backdrop of ‘industrial policy’, which has recently found renewed favour among economists and international organizations, and of the history of thought about and practice in industrialization. The book seeks to learn from the failures and successes in the cement, leather and leather products, and floriculture sectors, all of them functioning under the umbrella of a single industrial strategy. Moreover, it argues that success lies in the interactions among policy, specific industrial structures, and institutions. Specifically, this book argues that a successful policy should maximize linkage effects, but will flounder in the absence of a clear understanding of the political economy of each sector. It is historically unusual for episodes of rapid economic growth to last very long. And it is even more unusual for those growth spells to lead to, and be underpinned by, the kind of structural transformation that makes an initially low-income developing country better equipped to cope with the shocks and constraints of a violently unstable world, while generating jobs and productivity increases that raise the bulk of the population’s living standards.