Making Innovation Policy Work: Learning from Experimentation

Building on concrete examples, this book explores a number of emerging topics in innovation policy for sustainable growth and shared prosperity and develops the concept of experimental innovation policy, which integrates monitoring and evaluation at the policy design stage and throughout implementation. This approach can help improve the quality and efficiency of public expenditures supporting innovation policy. The report also calls attention to the need for a more open approach to innovation and industrial policies that differ from traditional industrial policies. This shifts the debate on government activism in support of globally competitive industries from picking winners to a process of step-by-step transformation of the public and private sectors. Such an open approach to innovation policies emphasises strategic collaboration with the private sector to ensure that interventions work as expected. More broadly, the book is intended to help launch a series of conversations together with further exploration, experimentation and learning into how to make innovation policy, its implementation, and its measurement – including the measurement of investments in innovation capabilities by enterprises – work for better development impact in different domains and different country contexts.