Abstract：

 

That China is a country that has actively employed some sort of industrial policies to promote its development, at both the provincial and national levels, is a claim that no one will dispute. Debates on  the wisdom of using industrial (and trade) policies have been waged for centuries, the latest round of  which began with the onset of the Great Recession. While Chinese researchers have contributed much in the form of case studies on different aspects of the possible impact of such policies on China’s growth and development, contributions by Chinese researchers to the theoretical aspect of the debate is few and far between, with the major exception of Justin Y. Lin. Through the examination of some works of the late Nathan Rosenberg, this paper argues that there is an approach to industrial and technology development research, with substantive policy implications, that could be fruitful to adopt. Some aspects of this approach are being championed by Ha-Joon Chang and Antonio Andreoni, two very prominent figures in the latest round of the debate. What they do not seem to realize, however, is that Rosenberg’s works are arguably influenced in important ways by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Allyn Young, and Albert Hirschman. In short, the approach embodies highly rich and respectable intellectual influence. A key concept that he introduced is ‘technological convergence’, prior to which there has been ongoing division of operations (Smith and Marx). But given that the operations that obtain from such division occur both within and across firms as well as industries, they are initially ‘segregated’ (Young), but could await being joined and linked together (Hirschman). That is when technological convergence occurs, with probable significant technological breakthroughs achieved by new firms or new units in existing firms, and if so, triggers big changes in industrial organizations. New backward and forward production linkages that radiate from those new firms/units will be unleashed in the economy. If a Rosenbergian research approach is indeed considered, then what would be the research questions that it requires the researcher to ask? What kind of historical data would have to be gathered? What aspects of industrial and technology development could it shed light on, with what possible policy implications? And what are the possible limitations of this approach? This paper contains preliminary thoughts.