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ResumoO período [2003][2004][2005] foi marcado pelo intenso crescimento do comércio mundial. Neste contexto, o Brasil foi capaz de reverter seu déficit de comércio, usufruindo de expressivo superávit. Porém, este dinamismo comercial não foi acompanhado de crescimento da economia nacional. Este trabalho faz uma análise empírica do comércio brasileiro neste período recente de expansão do comércio mundial, com o objetivo de relacionar o tipo de comércio brasileiro com as características da estrutura industrial que existe no país. A metodologia adotada traz como novidade a possibilidade de se avaliar o comércio de uma perspectiva mais qualitativa, a partir do exame do tipo de produto e região de origem e destino dos fluxos. In this context, Brazil was able to revert its trade deficit, taking advantage of a considerable surplus. Nevertheless, this trade dynamism did not go hand in hand with national economic growth. This article makes an empirical analysis of Brazilian trade in this recent period of world trade expansion, with a view to comparing the kinds of Brazilian trade with the industrial structure that exists in this country. The methodology adopted is innovative in that it allows the evaluation of trade from a qualitative perspective, by examining the kind of product and region of origin and destination of the flows.

Brazil liberalised its trade and finance in the 1990s as a strategy for higher economic growth. However, the country's GDP growth has been unstable and low compared to its own performance during the industrialization period. This paper builds a model of economic growth that accounts for the main components of effective demand as well as important specificities of emerging economies to explain the economic dynamics after the liberalising reforms. The model is estimated for the case of Brazil from 1990 to 2014 and the results suggest that this economy became highly dependent on the world economic growth and the evolution of the real exchange rate. The main finding is that Brazil experiences higher economic growth only in favourable world scenarios but the evolution of the real exchange rate in this scenario may stimulate investments that only reinforce the existing productive structure, affecting negatively the long-run economic growth.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the real exchange rate on investment in the Brazilian manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop an investment model that considers the effect of changes in the real exchange rate, taking into account that the effect of the real exchange rate on the Brazilian manufacturing investment operates through demand and cost channels. The composition of these effects varies across manufacturing sectors, with different repercussions on investment decisions, depending on sectoral characteristics. A panel data analysis is applied to estimate the model for the Brazilian manufacturing sectors from 1996 to 2010. Findings – One main result is that the responsiveness of the Brazilian manufacturing investment to real exchange rate varies considerably across manufacturing sectors. Overall, the results contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between exchange rate dynamics, manufacturing investment and industrial development, thus unveiling important empirical elements for the debate on industrial policies to stimulate manufacturing investment and production. Originality/value – As the (scant) empirical literature on real exchange rate and investment in Brazil has invariably been using aggregate data, this paper contributes to the literature by obtaining sectoral estimates of the responsiveness of manufacturing investment to exchange rate fluctuations that further the understanding of the complex relationship between these economic variables.

The aim of this paper is to review the Kaleckian and post-Kaleckian literature on income distribution and economic growth and question the extent to which they analyse countries? economic regimes and economic performances properly and appropriately to understand countries? economic performances. The debate focuses on the inclusion of profit margin in the investment function as a way to characterize the effective demand regime in the neoliberal era as a profitled growth regime. Our argument is that this inclusion is not able to evaluate properly the countries? economic growth in terms of the consistency between its effective demand regimes and income distribution.

This paper has critically documented a vast literature addressing the multi-layered outcomes associated with participating in global value chains (GVCs). In particular, this paper reviews and synthesizes the definitions and quantitative measures of one particular dimension of the GVC analysis that is two-fold: the economic and social upgrading. More specifically, we discuss the economic perspective of upgrading, which is usually associated with “moving into higher value-added stages”, and it is commonly assumed to be followed by positive spillovers regarding technology and productivity. This paper emphasizes the important diversity of definitions and measures within the GVC literature, considering it as a reflection, to a certain extent, of the absence of a systematic theoretical apparatus in the GVC literature. The paper concludes with some considerations on the role of policymakers in promoting social upgrading as an important topic in the GVC research agenda.

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The authors would like to thank Jaime Marques Pereira for his valuable suggestions.