Abstract

The superiority of industrial performance in East Asian countries, particularly in
the face of their counterparts in Latin America, had a strong impact on the debate about the
relationship between state intervention and industrial performance. The structuralist paradigm
was quickly replaced by a new orthodoxy whose recipe for success is a minimalist state
and an open economy. This article seeks to show that, although the opening of the economy
is a fundamental ingredient, its complement is not a minimalist state, but an interventionist
one. Not the Latin American type, but one that restricts its actions to major market failures.

JEL Classification: F63; L52; O43.