Industrial policies—used by governments to address structural economic, societal, and environmental challenges that markets cannot solve on their own—are back in vogue. Once characterized by public ownership and state planning, industrial policies fell out of fashion in the late 1970s in favor of approaches that prioritized the role of free markets in organizing economic activity.

Contemporary global challenges—including the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and geopolitical and trade tensions—have heightened concerns about economic resilience and the capability of markets to address them. This has led to renewed interest in interventionist policy tools, coordinated through industrial strategies. Debates have shifted from whether industrial policies should be used to how they should be designed and implemented.

Drawing on more than forty stakeholder interviews, existing literature, and debates around the application of best practices in industrial policy, this report provides a set of principles and an analytical framework to distill lessons from the United States for effective industrial policymaking. Our approach analyzes the design and implementation processes underpinning recent US policy approaches and offers important lessons for European policymakers and investors.