Vol. 36 No. 1 (2016): Jan-Mar / 2016


Vol. 36 No. 1 (2016)

Jan-Mar / 2016
Published March 1, 2020

Article


João Paulo de Almeida Magalhães
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a00

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Classic growth and laggard growth: a new approach to development policies
João Paulo de Almeida Magalhães
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a01

The article argues that, unlike what happens in developed coutries, where growth depends on the levels of savings and technological innovations, in developing countries growth is subject to market availability. In terms of economic policy, this means that in developed countries the effort should be towards the creation of savings and technological innovations in appropriate level, while in developing countries the important is to ensure market dynamism and dimensions necessary for the elimination of their economic backwardness. Failure to recognize this difference, resulting from the development economics not proposing specific model for the laggard growth, has led to serious errors in development policies.

JEL Classification: O1.


From gold money to fictitious money
Eleutério F. S. Prado
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a02

In the nineteenth century, money appear primarily as gold. In the twenty-first century, it appears as strictly fiduciary money. It is known that Marx said very clearly that the golden money was the effective basis of the monetary and credit system. Had the historical development finally shown that his theory of value and money would be false? Marxists have struggled continually with this problem. This paper tries to show that exist a simple and good answer to this crucial question. It comes just developing a little the dialectics of commodities and money found on Marx’s Capital.

JEL Classification: B51; E50.


The recent debate on alternative growth models for Brazil has revealed an almost unanimous assessment regarding the end of the validity of the domestic consumption-led model
Celia Lessa Kerstenetzky
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a03

The recent debate on alternative growth models for Brazil has revealed an almost unanimous assessment regarding the end of the validity of the domestic consumption-led model. In this article, I propose to examine the broader social meaning of this model as well as the empirical soundness of supposed tradeoffs, e.g. between consumption and investment and, in particular, public investment and consumption, and suggest that the assessment unit should include the manifold consumption gaps, e.g. necessary, discretionary and public, that persist in the Brazilian society. The gaps suggest that there still is space for redistribution and expansion of social public goods provision. Exploring the potential of public social services for delivering growth in combination with social equilibrium and social cohesion and sustainability emerges from the analysis as a bet yet to be made. 

JEL Classification: H50; I38.


The concept of emerging power in international politics and economy
Pedro Cezar Dutra Fonseca, Lucas de Oliveira Paes, André Moreira Cunha
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a04

This paper aims to analyze the concept of emerging power established to the understanding of international affairs. The work observes that the use of the lexicon emerging – regarding to markets, countries or powers - as qualifier for a range of international relations phenomena became a constituent part of the matter. In spite of that, the empirical denotation of the predicate is ahead of the amount of efforts on its theoretical contextualization. Our methodological hypothesis is that the rational denial of the concepts prevailing connotative spectrum by acknowledging the embedded wisdom about cognate phenomena synthesizes a theoretical framework on its accurate use.

JEL Classification: F5; F53; F6.


Reflections on the method of Keynes
Fernando Ferrari Filho, Fábio Henrique Bittes Terra
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a05

The question of method raises probably some of the most controversial discussions of the work of John Maynard Keynes. Briefly, the controversies fall into three main areas: (i) the unit of analysis, i.e., whether Keynes’ economic theory is atomistic or organic; (ii) whether or not there is continuity in Keynes’ philosophical foundations throughout his work; and (iii) speculation about the scientific method Keynes used. In that context, this paper aims to explore the latter of these lines of controversy. The idea is to show that, considering his insights related to the inductivism, mainly in the Treatise on Probability, there are evidences that Keynes’ method was historical and inductive. 

JEL Classification: B2; B4; E12.


Nature of the state economic expanded functions in the Brazilian economy
Niemeyer Almeida Filho
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a06

Nature of the State economic expanded functions in the Brazilian economy. The paper discusses the dynamics of capital accumulation in Latin America economies. The hypothesis is that in these economies the role of the State is comparatively broader than in the economies of the centers of the capitalism by structural reasons. The argument is mainly based on Marx and Kalecki, besides historical elements of Latin America economies, particularly the Brazilian economy. Then the paper explores the dynamics consequences of this nature at the national levels, concluding that this condition gives a higher degree of instability.

JEL Classification: P16; O54; O10.


Price movement in the Brazilian land market (1994-2010): an analysis in the light of post-Keynesian theory
Tiago Santos Telles, Alex Willhans Antonio Palludeto, Bastiaan Philip Reydon
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a07

The present study aims to evaluate crop, pasture and forest land prices in Brazil, between 1994 and 2010, in the light of Post Keynesian theory. The results provide evidence that land, more than just a simple factor of production, must be conceived of as an economic asset. In fact, the price of rural land is determined not only by the expected profitability deriving from agricultural activities but also by the agents' expectations about its future appreciation and liquidity in an economic environment permeated with uncertainty. In this context, as an object of speculation, land has been particularly important as a store of value.

JEL Classification: E12; G11.


Households in the Minskyan Approach: issues and consequences of the indebtness of American households in the XX and early XXI century
Everton S. T. Rosa
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a08

The aim of this paper is to portray the financial inclusion of households and their implications for the dynamics of the economic system, in view of the importance assumed by theindebtedness of U.S. households in recent decades, especially in the 2007 U.S. crisis. Given the transformations of the U.S. economy and its financial system is proposed the rescue of Keynes's contributions of monetary economics and Minsky's financial vision to understand adequately the behaviour of households, both in the dimension of flows of income and spending, as in decisions on stocks of assets and liabilities subject to volatility and uncertainty.

JEL Classification: E12; E21; E32.


Assessing the dynamics of terms of trade inamodelof cumulative causation andstructural change
Ricardo Azevedo Araujo
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a09

 The motivation for this paper stems from the steady decline in the share of consumer expenditure son goods produced in the global south, coupled with the (empirically ambiguous) Singer/Prebisch hypothesis that this can be explained by a secular decline in the southern terms of trade. Drawing on these sources of inspiration, the paper sets out to study the dynamics of the terms of trade using a multi-sector growth model based on the principle of cumulative causation. The upshot is a North-South model of growth and trade in which the evolution of the terms of trade depends on differential rates of productivity growth in different sectors of the economy – and in which terms of trade dynamics may not be the best guide as to whether or not there is an uneven development problem. 

JEL Classification: O19; F12.


On the creative economy chain in Brazil: potential and challenges
Anita Kon
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a10

The article presents an analysis of the Creative Economy in Brazil, showing its development potential for the generation of income and employment, in order to the country’s development resumption. They are initially presented concepts and features of the Creative Economy for, in sequence, to analyze the economic development profile and potential of this industry in Brazil. The empirical part introduces some methodological aspects, in continuing with the analysis of the creative chain contribution to the generation of Value Added and employment in the country, and a vision of theirforeign trade.potential. Finally, the challenges to the implementation of public policies are investigated. 

JEL Classification: O; O2.


Revisiting the quarterly investment dynamics in Brazil: 1996-2012
Cláudio Hamilton Matos dos Santos, André de Melo Modenesi, Gabriel Squeff, Lucas Vasconcelos, Monica Mora, Thais Fernandes, Thiago Moraes, Ricardo Summa, Julia Braga
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a11

This text discusses the data on and thestylized facts of the dynamics of Brazil´s grossfixed capital formation (GFCF) since 1995. It also presents new econometrics pecifications for the quarterly dynamics of the Brazilian GFCG in the 1996-2012 years that suggest new causal interpretations to the problemath and. The data makeclear the different dynamics of the GFCF in dwellings and other buildings and structures and in machinery and equipment – and, as a consequence, the crucial role of the latter variable in the dynamics of Brazilian aggregate investment. The econometric specifications, in turn, suggest shocks in the real exchange rate international commodity prices and public investment as underlying causal mechanisms of the quarterly behavior of the Brazilian GFCF.

JEL Classification: C22; C82; E22.


Boulevard to broken dreams, Part 1: the Polonoroeste road Project in the Brazilian Amazon, and the World Bank’s environmental and indigenous peoples’ norms
Robert H. Wade
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572016v36n01a12

 Before the mid 1980s the World Bank conceived “nature” as something to be “conquered” and “environment” as a source of resources for “development”. By the late 1980s the Bank incorporated norms of environmental sustainability and indigenous peoples’ protection into its mandate, and other development-oriented IOs followed. This two-part paper describes how a fight over the Polonoroeste road project in the Brazilian Amazon inside the Bank, between the Bank and NGOs supported by the US Congress, and between the Bank and the government of Brazil helped to generate the far-reaching change of policy norms. The first part describes how the project was designed as an innovation in sustainable development in rainforests; and how it provoked a firestorm inside the Bank as it moved towards project approval.

JEL Classification: Q5; O13; I3.