Why have so few countries industrialised?

When countries develop, their economies become industrial, meaning that the goods and services that they produce are increasingly more diversified and complex. Despite progress, many countries in the world have not industrialised yet. This thesis shows that industrial and macroeconomic policies play a key role for industrialisation. A quantification of industrial policy instruments in East Asia and Latin America shows that larger public investments in East Asia spurred industrialisation. The type of government intervention also mattered: by designing an effective policy mix and by targeting strategic industries, East Asian states were more entrepreneurial than Latin American states. Second, firms’ investment behaviours follow business cycles’ fluctuations: by influencing these fluctuations, macroeconomic policies prove to be significant determinants of firms’ investments.