Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/91459 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Texto para Discussão No. 1664
Publisher: 
Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasília
Abstract (Translated): 
Since the late 1990s, Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) policies have been operated in Brazil mainly through calls for proposals stately-financed by a number of sectorial funds. Each of these funds is named after the economic sector concentrating the tax revenue financing them. Respective calls are defined and managed by a commission integrated by Government officials, academics and professionals related to the funding sector. Nevertheless, calls do not necessarily focus on topics directly related to the corresponding sector. Even though, changes introduced in 2004 oblige the sixteen existing sectorial funds to designate at least 50% of their revenue to the socalled transversal calls. These are formulated and implemented by a higher instance controlled by bureaucrats. Government justified this novelty on the need to re-organise the funds in order to better achieve policy goals as stated in official documents. This paper analyses the role played by the transversal calls on the sectorial funds' resource re-allocation, as well as on the attraction of private funding and participation in the supported proposals. In particular, we examine to which extent they contributed to achieve one of the following targets: i) redirecting financial resources towards strategic topics not furthered by a specific sectorial fund; ii) redistributing monies among existing sectorial funds as a way to adjust their budgets to their current degree of priority in the official policy documents; iii) increasing the participation of firms in the approved proposals. We refer to official documents to identify strategic topics, fields and economic sectors and check whether or not transversal calls benefited them in terms of resource allocation. Private sector involvement is evaluated through firms' participation in approved proposals and by the amount of financial resources engaged on them. Results suggest that none of the pointed targets seems to be accomplished between 2004 and 2008 - and indicate that Brazilian public ST&I funding have been rather pulverised than rationalised in this period.
JEL: 
O38
L52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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