Relations between institutions and industrial policies

The paper aims to show some of the complex relationships between institutions and industrial policies. Institutions are important factors determining the slow pace of change of the societies, their economies, States and private sectors, therefore presenting important consequences for the design of industrial policies. Having this as a backdrop, the paper tries to expose the relevance of a country institutionality for the choice of industrial policies and their possibilities of success. In the opposite direction, one important focus for many industrial policies are institutional changes, whether they are connected to the State or to the relationship between the State and the private sector, or even only to this last sector. The paper also investigates some of the difficulties and limits for these institutional changes.