Applied Economics Seminar Series. "The United States as an Active Industrial Policy Nation"
Published: 16 March 2025
02 April 2025. Professor Shang-Jin Wei, Columbia University
Professor Shang-Jin Wei, Columbia Business School, Columbia University
"The United States as an Active Industrial Policy Nation"
Wednesday, 02 April 2025. 15:00-16:30
Room 281, Adam Smith Business School Building
Abstract
We leverage the advent of large language models to construct a new database of industrial polies in the United States by scanning over all 12167 Congressional Acts and 6030 Presidential Orders from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 2022. We find that the US has always been an active Industrial Policy Nation throughout the period, regardless of which party is in power. In contrast to the economics literature, we find that the industrial policies in practice are more likely to be justified by national security rather than economic eƯiciency or competitiveness considerations. Finally, based on stock market reactions, these policies are recognized as economically significant in shifting resource allocations.
Bio
Dr. Shang-Jin Wei is N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and School of International and Public Affairs. During 2014-2016, Dr. Wei served as Chief Economist of Asian Development Bank and Director General of its Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department. Dr. Wei’s research has been published in top academic journals including American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics, and reported in popular media including Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Business Week, Times, US News and World Report, Chicago Tribune, South China Morning Post, and other international news media. Dr. Wei is a noted scholar on international finance, trade, macroeconomics, and China. He is a recipient of the Sun Yefang Prize for Distinguished Contributions to Economics (for the invention of the Competitive Saving Motive published in Journal of Political Economy), the Zhang Peifang Prize for Contributions to Economics of Development (for pioneering work on measurement of global value chains published in American Economic Review), and the Gregory Chow Award for Best Research Paper; some of his research was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
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First published: 16 March 2025