Industrial policy has become one of the most pressing issues in contemporary policymaking. State intervention in the market has long been considered irrelevant, irreprehensible, or unsuccessful,...Show moreIndustrial policy has become one of the most pressing issues in contemporary policymaking. State intervention in the market has long been considered irrelevant, irreprehensible, or unsuccessful, but the recent crises, including the pandemic, have boosted its name amongst policymakers across the world. However, the academic literature on industrial policies within comparative political policy literature is still lacking, and would benefit from more research. Taking an exploratory comparative approach, this thesis research variations of industrial policies related to the management of lithium-ion battery value chains in the United States and the European Union. Several researchers have observed different types policies that have been put forward by policymakers to strengthen global value chains, but these analyses have been lacking a strong link with theoretical frameworks on industrial policy and policy instrument literature. This research fills the gap by linking academic literature on industrial policy, value chain resilience, and policy instruments analysis to provide constructive insights into existing policy proposals and documents. This thesis finds a strong link between the historical preferences of governments in industrial policy mixes and the specific policies put forward to strengthen lithium-ion value chains. It indicates that, although resilience policies of the United States and the European Union are in line with industrial policy in other areas, there are shifts in the instrument mix that warrant future research to improve our understanding of industrial policy in the twenty-first century.Show less
This research analyses the relationship between real effective exchange rates and trade balance changes in the presence of differing levels of global value chain complexity and fragmentation in a...Show moreThis research analyses the relationship between real effective exchange rates and trade balance changes in the presence of differing levels of global value chain complexity and fragmentation in a large sample of economies using a variety of quantitative analysis techniques (ordinary least square regression, two-stage least squares regression, fixed effects regression, and panel vector autoregression). The research expects economies which are more integrated into global value chains, with larger greater global value chain complexity, to have a weaker relationship between real effective exchange rates and trade balances changes. The results of the quantitative analysis find a weaker relationship between the two variables and suggests some potential effects that this will have on debates within global political economy.Show less
