Vol. 38 No. 2 (2018): Apr-Jun / 2018


Vol. 38 No. 2 (2018)

Apr-Jun / 2018
Published February 26, 2020

Article


The structuralist revenge: economic complexity as an important dimension to evaluate growth and development
Paulo Gala, Igor Rocha, Guilherme Magacho
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a01

This paper brings elements from the economic complexity literature to the discussions of the structuralist tradition on the central role of manufacturing and productive sophistication to economic growth. Using data provided by the Atlas of Economic Complexity this study sought to verify if countries’ complexity is important to explain convergence and divergence among poor and rich countries and, if so, which are the countries that will be able to reduce the income gap compared to developed countries. The econometric analysis revealed that exports and production complexity is significant to explain convergence and divergence among countries. 

JEL Classification: B2; B5; B23; O1; O14.


Determinants of the rates of profit and accumulation in Brazil: the structural factors of the cyclical deterioration of 2014-2015
Miguel Antonio Pinho Bruno, Antonio Ricardo Dantas Caffe
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a02

The trends in profit and accumulation rates are key indicators in the analysis of economic crises. These variables account for the trajectories of economic growth and they are conditioned by the functional distribution of income. The deterioration of the macroeconomic conjuncture from 2014, in Brazil, has often been attributed, by mainstream analysis, to the errors inherent in the so-called "new matrix of economic policy”. However, the analysis of profit and accumulation rates, immediately after the impact of the US crisis in Brazil, in 2009, shows the existence of structural factors that are characteristic of the current Brazilian economy, which could not be overcome by countercyclical fiscal and monetary policies. 

JEL Classification: E1; E12; E25; E32; O4; O47.


Varieties of capitalism, growth and redistribution in Asia and Latin America
Ilan Bizberg
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a03

Both Latin America and Asia observed an impressive growth of their economies from the turn of the century until 2013. One of the differences between Asia and Latin America is that while redistribution and social security increased significantly in the second and growth was accompanied by reduced inequality, in Asia we have seen the contrary, increasing inequality, a more inefficient and decreasing social protection and no intent to redistribute. This paper wants to answer in what respects the mode of development of Asia, as characterized mainly by China, is more sustainable than the one followed by Latin America. 

JEL Classification: P5.


Real exchange rate and innovation: Empirical evidences
Keynis Cândido de Souto, Marco Flávio Cunha Resende
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a04

The recent debate on the determinants of the lung-run economic growth highlights the role of a competitive and stable real exchange rate to foster growth. In this debate, the works follow two approaches: theoretical and empirical. In the theoretical approach a considerable portion of the works points towards the innovation as a transmission mechanism of the real exchange rate effects on income. These works emphasize that the real exchange rate affects growth because of its impacts on the determinants of innovation, such as investment. Despite the theoretical debate, the focus of empirical works is on the analysis of the exchange rate effects on income while the relationship between exchange rate and innovation remains untapped. This article seeks to contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence that supports the link between the real exchange rate and innovation.

JEL Classification: O1.


Integration, spurious convergence, and financial fragility: a post-Keynesian interpretation of the Spanish crisis
Estaban Pérez Caldentey, Matias Vernengo
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a05

The Spanish Crisis is generally portrayed as resulting from excessive spending by households associated to a housing bubble and/or an excessive welfare spending beyond the economic possibilities of the country. We put forward a different hypothesis. We argue that the Spanish crisis resulted, in the main, from a widening deficit position in the non-financial corporate sector and a declining trend in profitability under a regime of financial liberalization and loose and unregulated lending practices. 

JEL Classification: F33; F45; O52.


The Creative Economy in times of crises: Brazilian endogenous development in the composition of Celso Furtado
Adriano Pereira de Castro Pacheco, Elcio Gustavo Benini
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a06

In almost all of his production, the noted economist and former minister of culture, Celso Furtado, praised the creativity of the nation as a strategic asset for the emergence of a new sustainable, inclusive and endogenous economic development model. The analytical trajectory of this work turned to literature review to highlight the theoretical contributions of Celso Furtado about the potential arising of a new economy that is intensive in creativity. In turn, the clipping of Celso Furtado's thought is a powerful and current tool to (re)consider the overcoming strategies of the country's underdevelopment. 

JEL Classification: A13; B5; Z1.


Insights on deflation theory
Angel Asensio
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a07

Irving Fisher offered a ‘tentative’ debt-deflation theory of great depressions rather than a fully consistent theory of his ‘creed’: “I say "creed" because, for brevity, it is purposely expressed dogmatically and without proof. (…) it is quite tentative” (Fisher 1933, p 337). The paper argues that prominent authors who strived to explain his ideas within the Walrasian apparatus could not deliver a consistent theory of deflation with protracted depression. This is basically because destabilizing market forces cannot dominate in that conceptual framework. By contrast, owing to the way competitive forces operate under fundamental uncertainty, Keynes’s General Theory escapes the contradiction. 

JEL Classification: B26; E3; E4.


Labor market trends in a low and heterogeneous productivity country. Evidence from Argentina’s manufacturing
Juan M. Graña
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a08

During Substitution Industrialization (1930-1975), wages rose, and unemployment and poverty were low. During the "neoliberal process" (1976-2002) the liberalization of the goods and financial markets resulted in the regression of the productive structure, high unemployment and the decline of real wages. Finally, since the collapse of 2002, Argentina has had enormous success in terms of unemployment, with limited achievements in wages or poverty. This paper tries to answer why Argentina faces difficulties to return to past labor market figures highlighting the process of capital differentiation and the new international division of labor.

JEL Classification: E24; O54; O11; J31; L60.


A review on defense innovation: from spin-off to spin-in
Ariela D. C. Leske
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572018v38n02a09

Historically, investments in innovation for military purposes have been presented as having a positive impact on economy development as whole. In this vein, the end of the Cold War is presented as an inflection point. The reduction in the number of international conflicts would have negatively affected investments in defense-related products, as the former was considered the driver of the latter. It argues that the decision of whether investing in the military or the civil sectors as the driver of economic development depends first and foremost on historic and socio-economic contexts in which decisions are taken.

JEL Classification: O3.