State and local governments frequently invest in policies aimed at stimulating the growth of new industries, but studies of industrial policy and related economic development initiatives cast doubt on their effectiveness. This article examines the role of state-level industrial policies in contributing to the different economic trajectories of two U.S. metro areas—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio—as they adapted to the decline of their legacy industries. Comparative case studies show that industrial policies in Pittsburgh, which empowered research universities as local economic leaders, contributed to the transformation of the local economy. In Cleveland, by contrast, state industrial policies invested in making incremental improvements, particularly in legacy sectors. The article concludes that by empowering new local economic actors—such as universities—industrial policies can foment political change that enables structural economic change to follow.

国家和地方政府经常投资于旨在刺激新兴产业增长的政策，但对产业政策和相关经济发展举措的研究对其有效性提出了质疑。本文研究了州级产业政策在美国两大都会区——宾夕法尼亚州匹兹堡和俄亥俄州克利夫兰——适应其传统产业衰退的不同经济轨迹中所起的作用。比较案例研究表明，匹兹堡的产业政策赋予研究型大学作为地方经济领导者的权力，有助于地方经济的转型。相比之下，在克利夫兰，国家产业政策投资于渐进式改进，尤其是在传统行业。