Does Import Substitution Industrialisation Strategy Hurt Growth?: New Evidence from Brazil and South Africa

Abstract

Abstract More economies have sprung up through home-grown import substitution industrialisation (ISI) strategy in the developing world as compared to those that have plummeted by adopting the prescripts of the Washington Consensus. The recurring economic and financial crises, essentially the 2008/2009 experiences, present another perspective for macroeconomic policy embracement. For instance, major economies, especially those of the United States and the countries in the European Union, jettisoned their neoliberal ideology for protectionist measures in dealing with the 2008/2009 financial and economic turbulence. This lends credence to a rethink of macroeconomic policies for the less developed and developing economies. Using data generated from the World Development Indicators (WDI), an organ of the World Bank, in regression analyses, this article argues that the macroeconomic policy of import-substitution industrialisation contributed to the current economic developments in Brazil and South Africa. The article suggests that an import-substitution industrialisation policy is not only appropriate to galvanise industrialisation in less industrialised economies, but also augments a sustainable economic growth.