Do Costa Rican export promotion and FDI attraction policies focus on fostering “picking
winners” in specific industries? Perhaps the best way of describing the existing policy is
that government does not pick winners, but rather follows them. That is, the Costa Rican
state does not apply any blunt policy instruments (like credit restrictions differentiated
taxes subsidies etc.) that select across sectors. However, the fostering institutions have
plenty of soft instruments (like selecting in which activities to train labor, or to conduct research, or contact companies etc.) which strongly target specific industries, based on the
market evidence of existing entrants in those industries or in “similar” activities