Industrial Policies: Handle with Care
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- Industrial Policies: Handle with Care
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Contact
For event inquiries:
International Monetary Fund
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Email: OAPEconomicSeminar@IMF.org
Overview
- Event organized by the IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
- Topic: IMF Staff Discussion Note titled “Industrial Policies: Handle with Care”.
- Focus: Reassessment of benefits and costs of industrial policies (IPs) as they are increasingly implemented.
- Themes examined: economic and geopolitical drivers of IPs and their impact on targeted sectors.
Key findings from the Staff Discussion Note (as presented at the seminar)
- IPs yield moderate and uneven economic gains.
- IPs are more effective when:
- addressing highly-distorted upstream sectors, and
- deployed with suitable tools.
- Structural reforms generally offer greater benefits and strengthen the link between IPs and economic performance.
- IPs may result in significant fiscal costs.
- IPs may generate unintended spillovers that can potentially accelerate economic fragmentation.
- Conclusion emphasized: careful management of IPs is crucial.
Seminar logistics
- Date & Time: Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Japan Time (GMT+9)
- Format: Online (Webex)
- Language: English
- How to join: Registration is required.
- Session structure:
- 10:00 AM — Opening; Takashi Nagaoka, Director, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, IMF
- 10:05 AM — Presentation by Samuel Pienknagura, Senior Economist, Research Department, IMF
- 10:35 AM — Q&A session
- 10:55 AM — Closing & post-event survey
Speaker profile (presentation)
- Samuel Pienknagura
- Position: Senior Economist at the IMF’s Research Department.
- Prior roles: Worked at the IMF's Regional Studies Division for the Western Hemisphere; Senior Economist at the World Bank (Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean); country economist for Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
- Education: PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Master’s degree from CEMFI; BA degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Research interests: International Economics and Macroeconomics, with a focus on developing economies.