Vol. 33 No. 3 (2013): Jul-Sep / 2013


Vol. 33 No. 3 (2013)

Jul-Sep / 2013
Published July 1, 2013

Article


The value of the exchange rate and the Dutch disease
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

This paper revisits the original (2008) paper on the Dutch disease, which defined it by the existence of two exchange rate equilibriums (the current and the industrial exchange rate equilibriums). Its novelty is in claiming that, as we have a value and a market price for each good or service, we also have a value and a market price for foreign money. The value is the cost plus reasonable profit corresponding to the exchange rate that makes competitive the country’s competent business enterprises; the nominal exchange rates floats around the value according to the demand and supply of foreign money. This basic distinction of the exchange rate in terms of value and in terms of price allows us to understand that the two equilibriums are defined in value terms, and opens room for a clear distinction of the policies that affect the value from the ones that affect the market price of the exchange rate.

JEL Classification: D46; F31.


Labor values, reproduction prices and land rent
Rodolfo Hoffmann
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

The paper analyses the determination of labor values and reproduction prices, including economic systems with joint production and systems with intensive land rent. The discussion is based on very simple numeric examples, avoiding that the mathematical complications hinder the comprehension of basic questions of Marxist economic theory.

JEL Classification: B51.


Assessing development and the idea of development in the 1950s in Brazil
Rafael Rossotto Ioris, Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

The decade of 1950s was a crucial period of the industrialization of the Brazilian economy. The dominant school of thought was the national-developmentalism, which was not restricted to the sphere of economic production but also encompassed political and socio-cultural processes of change. Combining repression, persuasion and paternalism, the national state took a significantly political and economic responsibility in the social, material and symbolic modernization during the Vargas and Kubitschek administrations. However, internal disputes, foreign demands and a long legacy of socio-spatial inequalities prevented the achievement of more socially inclusive goals, leading a legacy of unanswered questions that still have currency today. 

JEL Classification: O14; O25; O54; L52.


Brazil: an economy caught in a financial trap (1993-2003)
Bibiana Medialdea
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

In the early 1990s, Brazil entered a financialized economic dynamic in which short-term financial valorization generated by the issuing of guaranteed public debt overshadowed the entire economy. This article analyzes Brazilian economic processes between 1993 and 2003, in particular the bi-directional relationship with external vulnerability, erratic international financing behavior and how State actions to obtain and maintain these resources fostered financialization. As a result, the entire economy became enmeshed in a self-perpetuating trap in which financial activity was predominant over economic activity.

JEL Classification: O11; O16.


The complexity and the constructivism in economics
Arnaldo Mauerberg Jr.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

This paper attempts to show and summarize the concept of rules, order and complexity introduced around the mid-twentieth century by Friedrich August von Hayek. It also attempts to create a current parallel between those concepts and the field of complexity economics. At the time of his writings, the author sought to present arguments against the Cartesian rationality. Nowadays, the concepts presented by him could also serve as arguments against the way of thought used in mainstream microeconomics. A debate can now be seen between the mainstream microeconomics and the authors of the complexity theory applied to the economy, which can be understood as explanations guided by generic assumptions versus natural explanations guided in a computational approach.

JEL Classification: B41; B52; B53; D03; D79; D89.


De-industrialization and foreign trade: recent evidences to Brazil.
André Moreira Cunha, Marcos Tadeu Caputi Lelis, Flavio Benevett Fligenspan
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

This paper analyses the behavior of the Brazilian manufacturing sector during the 2000´s. We test the hypothesis of early de-industrialization induced by foreign trade. Our results show a mixed picture: although we showed signs of early de-industrialization induced by foreign trade, at the same time, we found evidence that Brazilian entrepreneurs have reduced manufacturing exports during internal market boom between 2004 and 2010. This fact determines the deterioration of trade balance of the manufacturing sector and justifies worries on long-term perspectives for Brazilian economy. 

JEL Classification: O14; F43.


Keynes and the concept of capital: Some epistemological observations in regard to the sraffian premises of the General Theory
Alain Herscovici
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

This article aims to examine the conception of the nature of capital used by Keynes in the General Theory, to show to what extent this concept is similar to Sraffa´s conception, and to highlight the implications related to this concept, in terms of structural instability. So I will study the mechanisms that explain the investment decision in an environment with strong uncertainty, the modalities of aggregation of different generations of capital and the instability of equilibrium. The convergence between the Keynesian and the Sraffian approaches comes from this common conception of capital. Finally, I will examine the implications in regard to the structure of the aggregate models.

JEL Classification: B41; E11; E12.


Financial exclusion: a regional investigation
Marco Aurelio Crocco, Fabiana Santos, Ana Figueiredo
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

 Despite the fact that after the second half of the nineties the studies of financial exclusion have gained strength among the studies about poverty and regional and social inequalities, a few studies about this problem had appear in the Brazilian economic literature. The present work aim to contribute to this discussion by doing a regional investigation about the phenomenon of financial exclusion inside Brazil. The main hypothesis of the study is that this phenomenon is not disassociated of the space in which it happens. Thought of the use of proxies two dimensions of financial exclusion had been studied: the access to financial services and the suitability of it.

JEL Classification: G2; R1; E44.


The grab of the worlds land and water resources
Franklin Obeng-Odoom
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

In this paper, I review recent developments in global political economy and political economy of development that have captured inter alia the attention of agrarian political economists. I do so through the periscope of two recent publications by Fred Pearce, Great Britain’s leading eco journalist and an edited volume by Tony Allan, Martin Keulertz, Suvi Sojamo and Jeroen Warner, scholars trained in different disciplines and based at various universities in the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland. The account of the pace, places, and perpetrators, procedures, and problems of this particular agrarian model provides fodder for the further development of a locus classicus on what is happening to the land question in this current moment under the capitalist order, a shorthand for which is ‘water and land grab’.

JEL Classification: O13.


La estructura económica del (sub)desarrollo y el equilibrio general. O que ocurrió con la teoría del desarrollo yh con as estructuras económicas?
Fidel Aroche Reyes
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy

En el pasado el concepto de desarrollo económico implicaba el cambio de las estructuras económicas a fin de hacer posible el empleo de la población en actividades de mayor productividad, asegurando mayores niveles de bienestar. El desarrollo implicaba entonces hacer transitar a los sistemas económicos a través de posibles sendas de equilibrio, de modo de alcanzar resultados más deseables: el equilibrio no era el objetivo. En periodos más recientes en muchos países menos desarrollados las estrategias económicas hacen énfasis en obtener crecimiento dentro de sendas de equilibrio. Ambas visiones dan resultados incompatibles. Este documento revisa algunos puntos de discusión sobre el cambio estructural que implica el desarrollo, frente a los objetivos de alcanzar el equilibrio.

JEL Classification: O10; O14; O40.