Failure and success: the fate of industrial policy in Latin America and South East Asia

The nature, timing and mix of interventionist policies are more important t han the argument between having an industrial policy or letting the market rule. Several Asian countries have adopted an economic development policy o f 'competitive protectionism', targeting nascent industries and assisting t heir technological advance so that they can export their products. Despite efforts to develop advanced technologies locally, some Latin American count ries embraced 'autarchic protectionism', organizing production based upon o lder imported technologies behind national tariff walls primarily for domes tic use. In this paper we compare Brazilian and Korean experience to analyz e why interventionist technology policies failed in the former country even as they succeeded in the latter. A case study of a Brazilian university an d its incubator facility mirrors developments in national technology polici es. Latin American innovation policy is moving toward a 'triple helix' of c ooperative relations among university, industry and government. (C) 1999 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.