INSTITUTIONAL PATHWAYS FOR IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ADAPTIVE IMPORT-SUBSTITUTION POLICY

Abstract

In the context of a dynamically transforming geoeconomic agenda driven by multiple factors—including the growing use of external restrictions as instruments for pursuing political or geoeconomic objectives by a number of states—there is a need to design adaptive mechanisms that facilitate the implementation of sustainable development. One such mechanism is the implementation of an import-substitution policy. Structural shifts in the economy under intensifying external constraints disrupt transnational supply chains for technological and consumer goods. This, in turn, results in serious negative consequences in the social sphere, creating significant risks of disrupting the processes involved in implementing sustainable development. In this situation, developing new—and further evolving established—theoretical approaches to import-substitution policy amid systemic transformations becomes an urgent task. In particular, it is necessary to adapt perspectives and approaches to studying import dependence with regard to the regional component, as well as in the context of ongoing systemic transformations that upend traditional models and theoretical approaches. Taking these aspects into account, the aim of the study is to substantiate and develop adaptive directions for advancing the theory of the economics of forced import substitution as a doctrine for determining courses of implementing sustainable development under conditions of systemic transformation. The subject of the study is the development of adaptive measures and directions for advancing theoretical and practical approaches to shaping a policy of forced import substitution amid institutional and conjunctural transformations, as a key instrument for ensuring sustainable development. The outcome of the study is a set of substantiating arguments that underscore the need to implement sustainable development within the paradigm of developing the theory of the economics of import substitution, oriented toward seeking optimal configurations for designing import-substitution trajectories in the context of their implementation at the macro- and meso-levels.