Abstract

The arising literature on Ecological Unequal Exchange (EUE) incorporates multiple
elements of post-Keynesian strands, in particular the structuralist analysis of global economic
relations and the center-periphery divide. Nevertheless, there is still little discussion in the literature on the synergies and interconnections of the productive and ecological aspects
of the peripheral condition. This work intends to enter this debate by proposing a multi-regional
input-output (MRIO) analysis of the recent pattern of economic relations between
Brazil and China, focusing on the evolution and linkages between the productive and the
ecological aspects. The results show a rising unequal exchange of biophysical resources that
flows from Brazil to China which is tied to key sectors of the recent Chinese catching-up process.
In conclusion, it is argued that productive and ecological hierarchies entail two sides of
the same coin of the peripheral condition.

JEL Classification: C67; O53; O54; Q56.