Reasons for the policies

Over the past 15 years, many governments have become increasingly concerned to shape the structure of industry and to ease the burden of industrial adjustment. A number of factors, including the inflationary environment of the early 1970s; the oil shocks and rising commodity prices; slower economic growth, which persisted into the early 1980s; the new capacity in developing countries which added to excess capacity in many traditional industries, such as shipbuilding and steel, in industrial countries; the generally fiercer international competition; and the advent of new technologies played a role in pressing the need to transform the rrianufacturing sector. This continuing transformation led to concerns about the costs of change and disparities in income between national growth centers and regions in which traditional industries are located. Concerns also emerged about the continued viability of industries considered essential to the national interest.

(Clemens Boonekamp, 'Industrial policies of industrial countries', Finance and Development, vol. 26, no. 1, March 1989.)

* Non-tariff barriers – this term is used to describe all protection measures other than tariffs. It includcs measures such as imposing quality restrictions on imports or insisting that importcrs have a special licence to buy imports.

Look at the ways in which eight students used the ideas in different parts of the text in their own writing. Which of the extracts from students' writing would be acceptable in academic writing in an English-speaking academic environment?

(Note: One of the extracts below contains language errors.)

Extract 1

Government aid to industry in the industrial countries increased substantially bctween 1973 and 1983 and measures to influence trade – largely non-tariff barriers against imports – proliferated. Since then, the industrial countries' direct subsidisation of some countries may have declined, but they have significantly increased their use of non-tariff barriers to trade, perhaps using such barriers as a subsrittire for domestic industrial policy measures.

Industrial policy can be broadly defined as the deliberate attempt by a government to influence the level and composition of a nation's industrial output.

Extract 2

For long time industry has been seen as essential for development. Governments may try influence industry in its countries, this happens in the industrial and the developing country. A nurnber of factors, including the inflationary environment of the early 1970s; the oil shocks and rising commodity prices; slower economic growth, which persisted into the early 1980s; the new capacity in developing countries which added to excess capacity in many traditional industries, such as shipbuilding and steel in industrial countries; the generally fiercer interriational competition; and the advent of new technologies played a role in pressing the need to transform the manufacturing sector. It was necessary the change of structure of industry for governments.

Extract 3

Industrial policy can be broadly defined as the deliberate attempt by a government to influence the level and composition of a nation's industrial output. Thus defined, it encompasses a wide variety of government actions, including those to improve the industrial infrastructure and to enhance national labour mobility and efficiency. This essay will consider only a few aspects of policy. It will concentrate on policies for specific industries.

Extract 4

A broad definition of industrial policy would include a wide number of government actions, ranging from efforts to improve the industrial infrastructure of a country to actions designed to promote specific industries. The latter may involve shifting resources to more productive activities or makmg sure they remain in existing activities, for example, for security reasons.

Industrial policies may take the form of domestic measures like tax incentives or trade measures such as tariffs. In recent years, non-tariff barriers to trade have been increasingly implemented in industrial countries, possibly as a substitute for domestic measures.

Extract 5

During the past 15 years, many governments have become increasingly concerned to shape the structure of industry and ease the burden of industrial adjustment. Factors such as excess capacity in traditional industries, fiercer international competition and slower economic growth have been important in pressing the need to transform the rnanufacturing sector. This continuing transformation led to concerns about the costs of change and disparities in income between national growth centres and regions in which traditional industries are located.

Extract 6

There has in recent years been a growing tendency for governments in both industrialised and developing countries to influence the shape and structure of industry in their countries. Boonekamp (1989) cites factors such as 'the inflationary environment of the early 1970s; the oil shocks and rising commodity prices; slower economic growth, which persisted into the early 1980s; the new capacity in developing countries which added to excess capacity in many traditional industries, such as shipbuilding and steel, in industrial countries; the generally fiercer international competition; and the advent of new technologies'.

Extract 7

As Boonekamp has noted, government aid to industry in the industrial countries increased considerably in the years between 1973 and 1983 and measures designed to affect trade also grew rapidly, particularly in the form of non-tariff import barriers. The use of the latter may often have been adopted to substitute for domestic measures of industrial policy.

Extract 8

Boonekamp (1989) noted that aid to industry increased substantially between 1973 and 1983. Measures to influence trade – largely non-tariff barriers against imports – proliferated. Since then, the industrial countries' direct subsidisation of some industries may have declined, but they have significantly increased their use of non-tariff barriers to trade, perhaps using such barriers as a substitute for domestic industrial policy measures.