Working Papers

This paper discusses Uzbekistan’s recent experience with structural shifts and industrial policy and the larger implications for existing theories of industrial policy. The paper has a particular focus on various industry policy instruments.

Two major hypotheses are discussed: (1) the hypothesis of Haussmann, Hwang and Rodrik (the more technologically sophisticated the export structure, the better for growth) and (2) the hypothesis of Justin Yifu Lin (export specialization should build on existing comparative advantages and not jump over the necessary technological stages).

We introduce two separate datasets (The Global Consumption Dataset (GCD) and The Global Income Dataset (GID)) containing an unprecedented portrait of consumption and income of persons over time, within and across countries, around the world. The benchmark version of the dataset presents estimates in PPP units of monthly real consumption and income for every decile of the population (a ‘consumption/income profile’) for 133 countries and more than half a century (1960-2012). We describe the construction of the datasets and demonstrate some possible uses by presenting preliminary results concerning the consumption distribution, poverty and inequality for the world and specific country…