The case for a masterplan: Why every economy needs a compass

Markets may be efficient at pricing the present, but they're terrible at coordinating the future.

- ANNA MAE VU LAMENTILLO

That's why every successful economy, regardless of ideology, eventually reaches for some form of masterplan-a long-term, evidence-based roadmap that aligns public goals with private decisions. Call it an industrial strategy, a national development plan, or a citywide spatial framework: the label matters less than the function. A good masterplan doesn't micromanage; it choreographs. It creates the predictability, prioritization, and institutional muscle memory that compound into prosperity.

Coordination doesn't happen by accident. Without a plan, each actor pushes in a rational direction that can still add up to collective mess: ports built without rail spurs, power stations without transmission, universities graduating skills a decade out of date, housing where there are no jobs and jobs where there is no housing. A masterplan forces leaders to decide-explicitly-what gets built first, where, and why. Sequencing matters: roads before factories, grid before data centers, teacher training before curriculum reform. The compounding payoffs of getting the order right are enormous; the costs of getting it wrong are paid for in years.