Abstract
Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of industrial policy in promoting technological upgrading in Brazil. To do that, we focus on the main characteristics of the Brazilian national innovation system and the role of its institutions. We examine whether industrial policy implemented between 2003 and 2014 was able to promote changes in agents’ conventions towards more vigorous strategies linked to technological upgrading and catch-up. In addition, we analyze the Brazilian mining industry, a sector in which Brazil has developed relevant competitive advantages in international markets, and in which domestic agents have built important operational capabilities. Main results show the huge difficulties faced by industrial policy efforts in establishing mechanisms to drive technological catch-up, based on the unsuccessful experiences of policies in the years 2002 to 2014. The specific experience of the Brazilian mining industry confirms these general findings, since domestic mining companies were not able to create new technological capabilities, even during the commodity price boom period.
Highlights
Since the beginning of this new century, we have seen the revival of industrial policy in several developed and developing countries
This means that the industrial policy effort faced strong institutional shortcomings, ranging from the difficulty in establishing and coordinating development programs, up to obstacles in converging it with macroeconomic policies
This paper aims to assess the role of industrial policy in promoting technological upgrading in Brazil
Summary
Since the beginning of this new century, we have seen the revival of industrial policy in several developed and developing countries. We can see overall low levels of R&D expenditures, quite concentrated n the public sector; very low levels of private R&D expenditures, and private firms’ innovation strategies, all of which are mainly based on the purchasing of capital goods; low levels of patenting; and the strong presence of Multinational Companies in the productive structure In this perspective, industrial policy was not able to modify the main conventions established among private agents, in order to establish new development conventions (Erber, 2012). Mining firms were facing a variety of growing problems in the environmental area, with two large dam breaks during the 2010s Based on this context, this paper aims to assess the role of industrial policy in promoting technological upgrading in Brazil.
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