Vol. 16 No. 1 (1996)
How to Cite
Historical experience of industrial policy in Brazil
Abstract
This paper studies the practice of industrial policy and the corresponding effort
of institution building in Brazil from the 1930s to the 1970s. The argument is that, although
that practice and the respective institutional organization succeeded in the structuring of
Brazilian industry into a process of convergence towards the international industrial structure
and technological development patterns up to the 1970s, they showed themselves not
functional in catching up with the structural changes and the new technologies of the 1980s.
The paper concludes by pointing that both the established practice of industrial policy and
the related institutional organization led to a normative and institutional lock in which,
together with the political inertia, hindered the necessary changes at the beginning of the
1980s.
JEL Classification: L52; O25.
Keywords: Industrial policy institutional building protectionism late industrialization