- Economic sociology and economics have encouraged, since their intellectual origins, a different relationship with public economic policies and this diversity is still very much alive in today's debate. This is particularly true in the last decades, when economic sociology has developed strongly and when it get involved in public policy related issues. The paper argues that, with regard to public economic policies, the economic science has a stronger "influence" than economic sociology, despite the scant soundness of economic analysis would not justify it. At the same time, the paper goes on, today's influence of economic sociology on public economic policy has grown rapidly, especially because of the social and relational embeddeness of economic life. These opportunities will be exploited by economic sociology if few conditions will be realized: first, a closer attention to development and innovation issues is needed and, second, a stronger relationship with research centres and think tanks should be supported.Key words: economics and economic sociology, rethoric of economics, economic sociology and public policies, innovation, local development, embeddeness