Vol. 39 No. 4 (2019): Oct-Dec / 2019


Vol. 39 No. 4 (2019)

Oct-Dec / 2019
Published October 1, 2019

Article


The role of the State in fostering innovation activity: case studies of the USA and Germany
José Luis Gordon
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-2899

The present study analyzed the role of the State in fostering innovation in the USA and Germany. It was argued that governments in these countries play an active role in innovation, but each one operates with dissimilar objectives and tools, to stimulate and induce innovation activity in companies. Some specific cases of innovation policies in each country were analyzed to demonstrate the performance of the public power in different contexts. It was concluded that innovation policy is flexible and adaptable to each context, but the active role of the State stands out in both countries. 

JEL Classification: E60; F13; H20.


Real exchange rate, financial support and exports in Brazil: estimation of the sector export equation with implicit exchange rates
Débora Freire, Marco Flávio Cunha Resende, Gustavo Britto
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-35172009-2841

This paper assesses the relevance of export incentives in Brazil from 2004 and 2011. Departing from the hypothesis that exports profitability and incentives depend not only on the level of the real exchange rate and world income, but also on potential financial income obtained from such export incentives, the study calculates implicit exchange rates by sectors. The objective is to test the hypothesis that, together with the traditional variables of an export function, it is the adjusted implicit exchange rate, not the real exchange rate, the relevant variable to explain the level of sectoral exports in Brazil. Hence, two export equations are estimated using panel data, each one contemplating one of the available exchange rates. The results show that the implicit exchange rate is indeed relevant to explain exports and stress the importance of exports incentives.

Classificação JEL: E60; F13; H20.


Sraffa and the Labour Theory of Value: a note
Fabio Anderaos de Araújo
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-2859

The author seeks to demonstrate that the price system proposed by Piero Sraffa in his major work Production of Commodities by means of Commodities – Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory is compatible with both David Ricardo and Karl Marx ´s labour embodied theory of value and with Adam Smith’s labour-commanded theory of value. In reality, Sraffa’s measure of prices, the Standard Commodity, satisfies rigorously the mathematical condition of invariability in relation to income distribution between wages and profits. In this sense, it offers a consistent solution to the transformation problem of embodied labour values into production prices. Besides, the Standard ratio or the maximum rate of profits R can be used to analyse the evolution of the three major types or forms of technical progress in a capitalist economy, as follows: labour-using, neutral and capital-using techniques. 

JEL Classification: B12; B51.


Theoretical considerations on the land as pure financial asset and the financialization process
Mariana Fix, Leda Maria Paulani
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-2954

The present article has two goals: 1) to specify the concepts involved in the relationship between the real estate market and the financialisation of capital accumulation; and 2) to reflect more deeply on the contradictions of treating the land as a pure financial asset. In both cases, whenever possible, concrete examples will be brought to illustrate this conceptual effort.

JEL Classification: B51; O18; R30.


Celso Furtado as ‘Romantic Economist from Brazil’s Sertão
Jonas Rama, John Battaile Hall
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-3021

In The Romantic Economist (2009), Richard Bronk laments thatEnlightenment thinking dominated Economics during its formation as a science. As counterpoint, the ‘Romantic Movement’ had much to offer but remained peripheral. Consequently Economics embraced the centrality of rationality and other Enlightenment precepts, leading to a ‘social-physics’. Meanwhile human characteristics such; as sentiments, imagination and creativity were eschewed. While Bronk fails to identify an in-the-flesh ‘Romantic’ Economist’,our inquiry seeks to establish that indeed Celso Furtado qualifies. Profoundly influenced by his sensitivities and attachment to place, Furtado relies upon an organic metaphor – osertãonordestino – for insights into complexdevelopmental processes.

JEL Classification: B15; B31; N96.

 


Recessions and a changing theoretical basis of the recoveries: a view from the state-corporation hegemonic stability theory
Dariusz Eligiusz Staszczak
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-3013

This paper analyses reasons of the world recessions in 1974-1975, 1980-1982 and 2008-2009 and methods to improve the economy basing onvarious theories of macroeconomics and according to the view from the theory of the state-corporation hegemonic stability. Various practical reasons of the three modern recessions (i.e. oil shocks and the speculation bubble) and various governmental activities to recover the economy explain changing positions of states and transnational corporations in the global system. Ruling politicians based on developmental or liberal theories of macroeconomics interchangeably. Growing importance of transnational corporations and their influences on theory of recoveries confirm the correctness of the state-corporation hegemonic stability theory.

JEL Classification: E42; E52; F02; F63.


The origins of anti-capitalism in the young Marx
Ricardo Luis Chaves Feijó
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-2967

The objective is to demonstrate, based on new biographies, that the essay On the Jewish question revealsan element of anti-Semitism that played a fundamental role in the conversion of Marx to Communism. Criticism of the Jew served to support the Marxian thesis that capitalism, identified with Judaism, is evil. New sources have reinforced the suspicion that not only is there at this time of 1843-44 an element of anti-Semitism in Marx's writings, but that this sentiment played a key role in his conversion to communism. This is what this essay seeks to prove.

JEL Classification: B; B3; B31.


The social doctrine of the catholic church, the new developmentalism and the social market economy: possible dialogues?
Arthur Rizzi Ribeiro, Ricardo da Silva Carvalho, José Luis Oreiro
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-3033

The purpose of this article is to present the fundamental origins and propositions of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church (hereinafter DSI) and its possible points of contact and dialogue with the social market economy (hereinafter ESM), of German origin, and with the New-Developmentalism (hereinafter ND), originating from the São Paulo Consensus. It is obvious that we are not saying that ESM and ND are direct developments of the DSI; Or that DSI is fully compatible with the first two. Our goal in this article is to show the points in which ESM and ND have in common with the DSI; In order to broaden the scope of political support to new developmentalism in Brazilian society, arguing that a Developmentalism in a broad sense - which includes both the ESM and the ND-are not incompatible with the DSI and thus with the Christian vision on the World, the Man and the Economic Systems. From the viewpoint of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the vicinity between ESM and ND are sufficient to affirm that it is perfectly reasonable to see the ND approach of the economy as a possible well that offers credible and fairly accurate responses to the problems and concerns posed by the Popes of the Catholic Church. Since the DSI is an inspiring basis for many relevant political movements, such as the Christian Democracy, it is extremely relevant to analyze the political possibilities of the new developmentalism in the most varied fields of the political spectrum.

JEL Classification: P11; P51; Z12.


Ideas, institutions and coalitions: the reasons for the failure of Lulista industrial policy
Michelli Gonçalves Stumm, Wellington Nunes, Renato Perissinotto
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-2978

This article deals with the industrializing politics of the Lula governments, in order to explain why it failed. This is done at three different times. First, we deal with the ideas that guided the industrial policies of the period. Secondly, we show, based on a synthetic set of information, that the intended objectives, for the most part, were not achieved. Finally, we analyze the failure of these policies as a basis in the absence of viability (intellectual, administrative and political) of the set of ideas that guided the enterprise 

JEL Classification: O25.


Multilateral development banks, new developmentalism and local currency financing
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Cinthia Bechelaine
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572019-2980

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are designed to finance investments that promote global economic and social development. The objective of this paper is to discuss a key component in meeting the demand for investment in developing countries, namely the ability of MDBs to provide loans in local rather than foreign currency. To explain how these institutions fulfill this purpose, we distinguish "traditional" from "new" MDBs, discuss the problems generated from foreign currency indebtedness, and explore a way out, or an alternative explanation, based on New Developmentalism theory and the challenge of local currency financing.

JEL Classification: F3; F4; G2; O2.