Innovation Matters: New Innovation Policy

As the complexities of modern economies grow, traditional approaches to industrial policy face increasing scrutiny. For decades, debates have raged about how governments can intervene to foster innovation, address market failures, and create sustainable development paths. Today, industrial policy has undergone a transformation, and now embraces elements of market liberalism. In this episode of Innovation Matters, Professor Michael Munger from Duke University explores these issues, suggesting that industrial policy often oscillates between two extremes: setting the foundational rules of the game for markets to thrive and directly managing industry outcomes through subsidies, regulations, or nationalization. He highlights the inherent tensions in these approaches, including the risks of rent-seeking, misaligned incentives, and the difficulty of predicting which innovations will succeed.