Super interesting, thought-provoking book by @JosephWongUT on the limits of "developmental states" (or industrial policies) in science/innovation driven economies. Cases #Singapore #Korea #Taiwan

With clear implications for #China's state-led innovation https://www.amazon.com/Betting-Biotech-Innovation-Developmental-Political-dp-0801450322/dp/0801450322/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1599608312

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20th century developmental states succeeded by "picking winners"

This cannot work in cutting edge sciences like biotech, because governments do not know what to pick

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Uncertainty is normally regarded as a bad thing, but in fact, it goes hand in hand with innovation

Likewise, I argued in How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, uncertainty is not a bad thing

Because both terrible and marvelous possibilities exist

But govt' are not used to this idea. They have set their minds on a desired outcome, and any deviation is bad.

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So when previously successful developmental states face uncertainty, situations they cannot predict and control, what happens?

In Singapore, planners bet on attracting large foreign firms to avoid failure.

Ironically, that backfired. Attracting giant foreign companies crowded out indigenous innovation.

An argument that echoes @lingchenjhu study of Suzhou in Manipulating Globalization

Suzhou copied the Singapore model, and thus replicated its strengths and weaknesses