The «Jacquemin-Rodrik» Synthesis and the Design of a new European Industrial Policy

The aim of this paper is to analyze the possible role of a new industrial policy at a European level. In so doing, the paper sheds light on both the forward-looking contribution of the late Alexis Jacquemin [1987], and the seminal papers of Dani Rodrik [2004, 2007]: this analysis shows what we could label the «Jacquemin-Rodrik Synthesis»; i.e., a positive industrial policy aimed not only at coping with the traditional market failures, but one aimed at influencing the structural transformation of industries and nations. The EU’s current situation is the subject of a specific paragraph given the potential role of a new industrial policy managed at the supranational level. From this framework emerges the strength of Italian manufacturing, and consequently the necessity to reform our fragmented (i.e., at the regional level of government) industrial policy. The renewal of our industrial policy should give Italy the chance to contribute to the debate in Brussels and Strasbourg where the EU is shaping a new approach for «a stronger European industry for growth and economic recovery».