> Approximately everyone became rich by using industrial policy: read Kicking Away the Ladder for detailed historical research. You're confusing correlation wi

> Approximately everyone became rich by using industrial policy: read Kicking Away the Ladder for detailed historical research. You're confusing correlation with causality. The reason why many countries became rich while pursuing industrial policy is that in the past almost every country pursued industrial policy in some way. There are just as many cases where industrial policy has gone terribly wrong, for example Argentina. Many economists argue that countries like Japan or Korea have become rich despite industrial policies. Compared to other countries, however, they had much lower import barriers at the time, and they could have been even more successful if they had not had them[1]. It is also worth mentioning that import restrictions mainly affect the poorest[2], both in rich and poor countries. > Our understanding of growth economics is not very good, so history is better guide than theory. You always need both theory and empirics, otherwise you cannot gain any insights. [1] https://www.nber.org/papers/w1936 https://www.nber.org/papers/w1936 [2] https://www.nber.org/papers/w20331 https://www.nber.org/papers/w20331