ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of the 1990s, several Latin American countries have witnessed the systematic growth of public programs aimed at enhancing firm-level innovation and technological upgrading. The overarching justification for these programs is that the market has failed to provide the incentives needed to reach an optimal level of private investment in innovation activities, 1 and therefore Latin American firms have failed to adopt the modern technologies and business practices that would have helped them to improve their productivity and competitiveness.
