Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) face the challenge of finding new growth engines that allow them to achieve and sustain high levels of economic and social development in the long term. Social development implies that the objective is not to grow for growths sake, but to achieve a certain type of growth that goes in a certain direction, that ensures improvements in the standard and quality of life of people. In this context, mission-oriented policies can be key to directing investment in innovation toward solving the main challenges that countries face. Mission-oriented policies have been implemented in some LAC countries, obtaining different results and lessons learned. This document conceptualizes and characterizes mission-oriented innovation policies and offers criteria to select missions and challenges. It presents the key results and lessons from six case studies, highlighting their dynamics of implementation and outcomes. Finally, it provides conclusions and recommendations for policymakers.@en

The paper develops a typological framework of the roles of state investment banks (SIBs) in the economy. The typology identifies four different roles: countercyclical; developmental; venture capitalist; and challenge-led. The paper conceptually elaborates the typology by first providing a historical overview of SIBs, and then discussing how the mainstream “market failure theory” justifies them. It then advances a different conceptualization based on insights from heterodox economics, showing that all roles of SIBs are more about market creating/shaping rather than market-failure fixing. The paper concludes with a proposal of a new agenda for research on SIBs based on our typological framework.@en

The study “The Brazilian Innovation System: a proposal oriented by missions” (The Brazilian Innovation System: A Mission-Oriented Policy Proposal) offers subsidies to develop and monitor a strategic innovation policy, based on the strengths of the National Innovation System for overcome the weaknesses of the country. The study presents the evaluation of several initiatives of the Brazilian government to support innovation in recent years and suggests policy initiatives that allow the National Innovation System (SNI) to become more mission-oriented, through intentional policies promoted by the State, in direct partnership with the private sector. The report proposes a process by which Brazil can identify its challenges from its grassroots. And, as a result, it presents recommendations for an alternative agenda to current policies in force in Brazil. The study was carried out based on the analysis of international innovation policy experiences, focused on the evaluation of policy documents and on the review of specialized academic literature, complemented by interviews carried out with 35 representatives of the public sector, private institutions and quasi-governmental institutions of the Brazil.@en