Vol. 44 No. 1 (2024): Jan-Mar / 2024


Vol. 44 No. 1 (2024)

Jan-Mar / 2024
Published December 22, 2023

Article


A brief history of development theory. From Schumpeter and Prebisch to new developmentalism
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, José Luis Oreiro
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3604

Classical developmentalism was heterodox economics that showed countries
require a moderate intervention of the state in the economy to industrialize and catch up.
Growth depends on investments and on a satisfying expected rate of profit, which import
tariffs legitimized by the infant industry argument assure. Latin American countries adopted
this industrial policy from the 1950s and experienced high growth rates. But the infant
argument loses validity with time. In the 1980s, under the pressure of the Global North, 
Latin American countries adopted the neoliberal reforms, and are quasi-stagnant since then.
New developmentalism emerged in the 2000s, made the critique of conventional economics,
proposed a new growth strategy focused on a competitive exchange rate, and legitimized the
use of import tariffs with the Dutch disease argument.

JEL Classification: O11; O14; O23; O24.


The legacy of Celso Furtado
Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3601

This essay reviews Celso Furtado’s intellectual legacy, highlighting his enormous
importance for economic thought. It adopts the method of comparing Furtado to another
great Brazilian economist, Mário Henrique Simonsen, emphasizing the superiority of the
former over the latter in several essential aspects. It also discusses the relation of Furtado to
Keynes and the Keynesian economic tradition, on the one hand, and to Marx and Marxism,
on the other. It highlights, in conclusion, his links to nationalism and romanticism, expressed
in his attachment to Brazil.

JEL Classification: A0; B5, C0; E0; F0, N0; P5.


The “National Champions” strategy in Brazil. Insights from JBS, VALE and AB-INBEV’ internationalization process (2003-2018)
Dario Clemente
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3502

A staple of the PT governments’ new economic policy in Brazil has been the
pursue of the internationalization of a selected group of domestic firms. From 2003 to 2013, the Brazilian State has promoted the globalization of such firms through various public
policies, with the main goal being to position the most of them in the upper echelon of
their respective industry globally. At the same time, internationalization had been a primary
“defensive” strategy adopted by leading Brazilian firms since the ‘90s, turned in a truly “global
strategy” in the last 20 years to deal with deeply transformative trends at world level. Here
we look specifically at the internationalization path followed by JBS, VALE and AB-INBEV,
highlighting common patterns such as undertaking expansive trajectories characterized by
distinctive and cumulative phases of consolidation; penetrating rapidly concentrating world
industries; a common tendency to dispersion of shareholding control, foreign takeover and
delocalization of central activities in major markets; growing financialization of business;
emergency of China as main market of reference. We conclude that the internationalization
trajectories of JBS, VALE and AB-INBEV show some shortcomings in the “National
Champions” strategy. Nonetheless, we warn against the temptation of regarding the mixed
results of this strategy as simply a “failure” of the new industrial policy as a whole.

JEL Classification: F23.


An analysis of the competitiveness of developing countries based on the foreign added value of exports: the use of revealed comparative advantage index for the period 1995 to 2018
Tatiana Massaroli de Melo, Eneas Gonçalves de Carvalho
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3514

The objective of this article is to contribute to the improvement of a more
comprehensive approach to international competitiveness, from the attempt to construct
a revealed comparative advantages index that considers not only the participation of
economies in the world market from the perspective of exports, but also the importance of
value-added of exports and, in a broader sense, decentralization of world production, for the
construction and maintenance of oligopolistic positions of industries and countries. For this,
we used data from the TiVA database, in the period between 1995 and 2018, focusing on
two groups of developing countries: BRICS and ASEAN.

JEL Classification: L10; L22; O12.


When McCloskey meets Latour: changing the perspectives on the debates about Rhetoric in Economics
Mayara S. S. Pires, Ramón G. Fernández
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3429

This paper rescues Deirdre McCloskey’s ideas about Rhetoric in Economics
and some issues left out in subsequent discussions. There is a parallel between the ideas
of McCloskey and Bruno Latour, and the complementarities of their perspectives are very
relevant for the development of Economics. Some reflections are here offered to improve the
practice of Economics, which are related to the social constructions of facts in the field, to
the internalization of political aspects, and to the importance of alternating between fact and
fiction in a dynamic that does not result in a zero-sum game, underlining the characteristic of
Economics as being inherently rhetorical.

JEL Classification: B40; B25.


From Medieval to Liberal Man: Cycles and Crises of Liberalism – Recent Authoritarian Tendencies
Luiz Afonso Simoens da Silva
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3447

This paper starts gathering historical evidence related to eventual regulation/
deregulation cycles in the two first decades of the XXth and XXIth centuries. Following, an
analysis on the passageway of the Medieval Man to a Liberal Man in Europe, and on the
economic and political features of the Classical Liberalism in its path to Neoliberalism. Later
on, a search for answers to the recent disarrangements and authoritarian trends in the world.
Many critics were made to Neoliberalism as well as speculations on the future of this system.

JEL Classification: B12; E12; N23; P16.


Exchange Rate Behavior in the BRICS
Flavio Vilela Vieira, Cleomar Gomes da Silva
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3451

This article aims to investigate the behavior of exchange rate in the BRICS
countries, with an emphasis on exchange rate passthrough and exchange rate determination
empirical models. By applying the ARDL Bounds Testing Approach Methodology, from
January 2005 to December 2019. Our main results show that: i) there is a long run
cointegration among the variables analyzed for all estimated models; ii) there is a very slow
speed of adjustment towards the long run equilibrium; iii) there is evidence of exchange
rate passthrough to inflation mainly in the long run, but not as strong as before; iv) there
is no evidence of exchange rate overshooting; v) international reserve accumulation can be
considered a partial explanation for the evidence of no exchange rate overshooting.

JEL Classification: C22; F14; F17.


The developmental welfare state in South Korea under globalization
Pedro Barbosa
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3412

This paper analyzes the expansion of social policies in South Korea during
the context of globalization, by linking two theoretical approaches: social investment and
the New Developmental State. Applying the case study method, I endorse the hypothesis of
complementarily between the welfare state and the developmental state. The article shows
that between the 1990s and the 2010s, South Korea expanded all sectors of social policies
analyzed. Beyond the expansion of passive policies, active policies (including education)
were reshaped in an integrated manner with the industrial policy to promote innovation,
pursuing the transition to the knowledge-based society; also the family policy became one of
the most generous among OECD countries.

JEL Classification: H51; H52; H53; H75; O15; P1.


Value extraction, crowding out, and instability of the financial sector on Colombian productive development
Gonzalo Combita Mora
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3486

This research aims to illustrate how, under the scenario of global financialization,
Colombia’s productive model changed and now is led by finance which extracted value,
creating instability, and provoking a crowding out effect on real sector embodied here by
the manufacture share of GDP. The above became evident in the 1990s thanks to freemarket
reforms implemented. The research uses heterodox theory to empirically verify the
hypotheses by creating variables representing the proposed phenomena and exposing them
through descriptive analysis and a VARX model.

JEL Classification: B26; D46; E12; F65; O14.


El Salvador: an analysis of the monetary integration law and the bitcoin law
Sergio Luis Náñez Alonso, Miguel Ángel Echarte Fernández, David Sanz Bas, Cristina Pérez Rico
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3459

The objective of this article is to analyze the two most important monetary laws
that have been implemented in El Salvador, namely the Monetary Integration Law (MIL)
and the Bitcoin Law. The most important articles of both laws will be analyzed, as well as
the consequences of dollarization, and the possible advantages and risks associated with the
adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. Although this measure may have some positive aspects
by encouraging financial innovation and facilitating remittances, the macroeconomic risk
is very high due to the volatility of this cryptocurrency. So far no positive results have been 
achieved as the acceptance has been very low and there has been a depreciation of the asset
in recent months.

JEL Classification: E40; E42; E44; E52; E58.