For policymakers investigating the effective transition of an economy from agriculture to manufacturing and services, there are complex economic, institutional, and practical considerations. 'Are certain regions trapped in an under-industrialization state'' asks Tishara Garg, an economics doctoral student at MIT. 'If so, can government policy help them escape this trap and transition to an economy characterized by higher levels of industrialization and better-paying jobs'' Garg's research focuses on trade, economic geography, and development. Her studies yielded the paper 'Can Industrial Policy Overcome Coordination Failures: Theory and Evidence from Industrial Zones,' which investigates whether economic policy can shift an economy from an undesirable state to a desirable state. Garg's work combines tools from industrial organization and numerical algebraic geometry. Her paper finds that regions in India with state-developed industrial zones are 38 percent more likely to shift from...
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