Background paper prepared for the World Development Report 2005: A Better Investment Climate for Everyone INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN EAST ASIA: IN SEARCH FOR LESSONS

One of the most debated questions in the development literature is the role of government intervention in East Asia. This paper summarizes the debate on East Asian industrial policy. Due to the wealth of lite rature on this topic, this paper does not attempt to exhaustively evaluate every intervention, but to describe the main lines of discussion and their evolution. The goal is to make sense of what is relevant to the challenges currently faced by developing countries. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official views of the World Bank