U.S. Manufacturing Health: Does the U.S. Need an Industrial Policy?

Host Joe Selvaggi interviews Scott Lincicome from the Cato Institute. They discuss the U.S. manufacturing industry, international trade, and industrial policy. They dispel the myth of manufacturing decline, highlighting sector evolution and productivity. The conversation moves to industrial policy, emphasizing the need for targeted protection and cautioning against broad subsidization due to potential inefficiencies. Benefits of free markets and globalization for consumers are underscored, with a brief touch on immigration as a solution to labor shortages and a debate on protectionism and tariffs.

Guest:

Scott Lincicome is the vice president of general economics and Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies. He writes on international and domestic economic issues, including international trade; subsidies and industrial policy; manufacturing and global supply chains; and economic dynamism.

Lincicome also is a senior visiting lecturer at Duke University Law School, where he has taught a course on international trade law, and he previously taught international trade policy as a visiting lecturer at Duke. Prior to joining Cato, Lincicome spent two decades practicing international trade law at White & Case LLP, where he litigated national and multilateral trade disputes and advised multinational corporations on how to optimize their transactions and business practices consistent with global trade rules and national regulations.

From 1998 to 2001, Lincicome was a trade policy research assistant at Cato; he became an adjunct scholar in 2013. During that time, Lincicome authored or coauthored several policy papers, as well as numerous op‐​eds on trade and economic issues. He is routinely featured on TV, radio, and print media.

Lincicome has a BA in political science from the University of Virginia and a JD from the university’s School of Law.