National champions: Based on long-term studies of policies of economic development in many parts of the world, Harvard academic Dani Rodrik argues that governments should not focus on high-tech, sunrise or knowledge-intensive industries because it pre-judges who will be successful. Nor should subsidies be confined to R&D. It is not always obvious in advance who will succeed. Who for example would have predicted the success of Italy? And yet it has several mature or traditional industries in clothing, furniture and footwear that have succeeded by innovative adaptation despite high labour costs. Another pitfall to avoid is the sponsorship of ‘national champions’. Successful countries such as Japan, South Korea and France all pursued an industrial policy but Japan’s export successes were all in industries where there were significant domestic rivals. In other sectors of the Japanese economy where there were no such rivals, Japan did not succeed in export markets. The experience of South Korea was the same. By comparison, France and Britain opted for national champions, and did not enjoy anywhere near as much export success, with British Leyland an outstanding example of failure.