Competition Policy vs. Industrial Policy as a Growth Strategy

This paper examines the rationale behind industrial policy and competition policy as growth strategies, and shows that competition policy, rather than industrial policy, generated the rapid economic growth in post-war Japan. It also reveals that Japan's growth rate was lowered from the mid-1970s due to newly introduced industrial policies and paucity of further competition policy. The current Abe government recognises the need for competition policies in Japan to recover from the low-growth period. The paper describes the types of competition policy carried out under Abenomics, especially in strategic special economic zones.

ERIA-DP-2016-40