Publications /
Research Paper

Back
Download PDF
The Challenge of Fostering Innovation and Accelerating Economic Growth in Brazil
Authors
Sérgio R. R. de Queiroz
Nicholas S. Vonortas
Otaviano Canuto
May 9, 2025
Related topics: 
Economy
Macroeconomics and regulation
Sectorial policies and structural transformation
Americas and Carribean
South America

This paper aims to demonstrate how certain transformations in the international economy since the 1980s¾notably the globalization of firms and industries¾combined with a set of domestic challenges, disrupted the path of industrial and technological development that Brazil had pursued since the 1930s. In essence, growth strategies based on the scale of the domestic market ceased to be effective. The innovation and economic challenges the country now faces cannot be addressed without a clear understanding of these processes.

The analysis carries important policy implications, centered on the need for less protectionism and greater internationalization of firms. Reversing the inward-looking orientation of THE Brazilian industry is a key objective for any policy aiming to stimulate increased business R&D and innovation.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Download PDF
    The Mist of Central Bank Balance Sheets
    Authors
    Matheus Cavallari
    Otaviano Canuto
    February 23, 2017
    Central banks of large advanced and many emerging market economies have recently gone through a period of extraordinary expansion of balance sheets and are all now possibly facing a transition to less abnormal times. However, the fact that one group is comprised by global reserve issuers and the other by bystanders receiving impacts of the former’s policies carries substantively different implications. Furthermore, using Brazil and the U.S. as examples, we also illustrate how the re ...
  • Download PDF
    Housing Policies in Africa & Brazil: The role of PPPs for low-income housing
    Authors
    Marcus Vinicius de Freitas
    July 13, 2016
    Housing is part of the United Nations 11th Sustainable Development Goal, which is to “make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. One of the most important targets of such a goal is to “ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing1 and basic services and upgrade slums”. Since 2007, the world has faced rising inequality, insecurity and climate change impact. According to UN Habitat, 54% of the world´s population currently live in cities. By 2050, this n ...
  • Download PDF
    Climbing the Global Digital Ladder: Latin America’s Inescapable Trial
    Authors
    Alfredo Da Gama e Abreu Valladão
    June 30, 2016
    Latin American economies are facing two historically defining challenges. First, how to cope with the end of the commodities “super-cycle” and the prospect of a long period of low prices for basic natural resources. After all, raw materials production and semi-industrialized goods encompass most of their comparative advantages. Second, and even more exacting, how to adjust to the present disruptive transition from an old to a new global economic and social model. The 20th century in ...
  • The Current Brazilian Situation
    Authors
    Marcus Vinicius de Freitas
    February 22, 2016
    If one opens the newspapers nowadays, Brazil will come out as a melting opportunity. The country is currently facing its largest economic crisis, mostly resulting from a negative political environment where the current Administration has been deeply swollen by Brazil´s largest corruption scandal, the so-called Lava Jato (Car Wash) Operations, whose investigations have brought to light the fact that billions of US$ dollars were being used for campaign financing, illicit enrichment an ...
  • Featured Q & A: How Will the Fed’s Rate Hike Affect Latin America?
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    January 12, 2016
    Q: The U.S. Federal Reserve on Dec. 16 raised interest rates, ending what Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen called an “extraordinary seven-year period” during which policymakers kept the federal funds rate near zero in an effort to support the economy. How will the Fed’s action affect Latin American economies, many of which are struggling with anemic growth and low prices for their commodity exports? How will the interest rate hike affect Latin American countries’ ability to pay off their ...