Recorded on April 19, this video features a talk by Susan Helper, Carlton Professor of Economics at Case Western Reserve University and former Senior Advisor for Industrial Strategy in the Biden Administration. Professor Helper reflects on her experience designing and implementing strategies for supply chains such as electric vehicles, personal protective equipment, and clean energy. She also discusses the role of academic theory in these efforts, and provides suggestions for future academic work.

“Why is industrial strategy useful?” Helper said. “I’m an economist, so this is basically heavily based on the idea that there are spillovers. Private actors don’t capture all the benefits and costs of their actions, and some effects spill over to affect others. And so then, in that case, there’s a role for government to step in and help with some of these issues….. And industry-specific actions — this is more controversial among economists, but changing — are useful when there are particular bottlenecks or particular places where you need to address supply and demand at the same time.”

Sarah DiMagno moderated the panel, and Daniel Aldana Cohen and Ari Benkler served as discussants.

Co-sponsored with the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE).

About the Speaker

Susan Helper is the Frank Tracy Carlton Professor of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She was formerly Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce and a member of the White House Staff. She has served as chair of the Economics Department, and has been a visiting scholar at University of Oxford, the University of California (Berkeley), Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research focuses on the globalization of supply chains, and on how U.S. manufacturing might be revitalized. Dr. Helper received her PhD in Economics from Harvard and her BA from Oberlin College in Economics, Government and Spanish.