IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wboper/17038.html

The Brazilian Competitiveness Cliff

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Guilherme Reis
  • Otaviano Canuto
  • Matheus Cavallari

Abstract

Brazilian exports of goods and services have grown sharply in recent years, with sales nearly three times higher in 2010 than in 2000. However, Brazil faces considerable competitiveness challenges: its export performance depends mostly on favorable geographical and sector composition effects. Such challenges increased after the recent global economic crisis. A recent slowdown in industrial exports, production, and investments seems related to supply-side difficulties stemming from a wide range of inefficiencies and rising costs, rather than insufficient demand. Although a stronger currency is one of the factors behind the lower competitiveness of Brazil’s manufacturing exports, sluggish productivity performance, lack of dynamism at the firm level, and a real wage uptrend seem to explain a significant part of the overall loss of competitiveness. This diagnostic reinforces the urgency of resuming the agenda of microeconomic reforms, increasing the investment-to–gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, and advancing toward better-skilled human capital.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Guilherme Reis & Otaviano Canuto & Matheus Cavallari, 2013. "The Brazilian Competitiveness Cliff," World Bank Publications - Reports 17038, The World Bank Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wboper:17038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/6e55fcd6-c46c-5d8e-86e8-4e3ce0cc4fc0/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cebeci, Tolga & Fernandes, Ana M. & Freund, Caroline & Pierola, Martha Denisse, 2012. "Exporter dynamics database," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6229, The World Bank.
    2. Tibor Besedeš & Thomas J. Prusa, 2006. "Ins, outs, and the duration of trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 266-295, February.
    3. Canuto, Otaviano & Cavallari, Matheus & Reis, Jose Guilherme, 2013. "Brazilian exports : climbing down a competitiveness cliff," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6302, The World Bank.
    4. Gaulier, Guillaume & Santoni, Gianluca & Taglioni, Daria & Zignago, Soledad, 2013. "In the wake of the global crisis : evidence from a new quarterly database of export competitiveness," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6733, The World Bank.
    5. Jose Guilherme Reis & Thomas Farole, 2012. "Trade Competitiveness Diagnostic Toolkit," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2248, April.
    6. Krugman, Paul R, 1996. "Making Sense of the Competitiveness Debate," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 17-25, Autumn.
    7. Sofronis K. Clerides & Saul Lach & James R. Tybout, 1998. "Is Learning by Exporting Important? Micro-Dynamic Evidence from Colombia, Mexico, and Morocco," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(3), pages 903-947.
    8. Ricardo Hausmann & Jason Hwang & Dani Rodrik, 2007. "What you export matters," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, March.
    9. Corden, W Max & Neary, J Peter, 1982. "Booming Sector and De-Industrialisation in a Small Open Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 825-848, December.
    10. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. International Monetary Fund, 2017. "Brazil: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2017/216, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Tortorella, Guilherme Luz & Miorando, Rogério & Marodin, Giuliano, 2017. "Lean supply chain management: Empirical research on practices, contexts and performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 98-112.
    3. Porzecanski, Arturo C., 2014. "Brazil’s Place in the Global Economy," MPRA Paper 54257, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose, 2014. "Do export promotion agencies promote new exporters ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7004, The World Bank.
    5. -, 2014. "United States Trade Developments 2013-2014," Oficina de la CEPAL en Washington (Estudios e Investigaciones) 37838, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    6. Guilherme R. Magacho & John Mccombie, 2016. "Impacts Of Developing Countries Growth On Natural Resource Exporters: A Bop Constrained Growth Model," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 097, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    7. Alicia Garcia-Herrero & Enestor Dos Santos & Pablo Urbiola & Marcos Dal Bianco & Fernando Soto & Mauricio Hernandez & Rosario Sanchez & Arnulfo Rodriguez, 2014. "Competitiveness in the Latin American manufacturing sector: trends and determinants," Working Papers 1411, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.
    8. Nelson Marconi & Igor L. Rocha & Guilherme R. Magacho, 2016. "Sectoral capabilities and productive structure: An input-output analysis of the key sectors of the Brazilian economy," Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Center of Political Economy, vol. 36(3), pages 470-492.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Canuto, Otaviano & Cavallari, Matheus & Reis, Jose Guilherme, 2013. "Brazilian exports : climbing down a competitiveness cliff," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6302, The World Bank.
    2. Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose, 2014. "Do export promotion agencies promote new exporters ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7004, The World Bank.
    3. Marianne Matthee & Neil Rankin & Tasha Naughtin & Carli Bezuidenhout, 2016. "The South African manufacturing exporter story," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-38, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Bresnahan, Lauren & Coxhead, Ian & Foltz, Jeremy & Mogues, Tewodaj, 2016. "Does Freer Trade Really Lead to Productivity Growth? Evidence from Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 18-29.
    5. Stirbat, Liviu & Record, Richard & Nghardsaysone, Konesawang, 2013. "Determinants of export survival in the Lao PDR," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6301, The World Bank.
    6. Marianne Matthee & Neil Rankin & Tasha Naughtin & Carli Bezuidenhout, 2016. "The South African manufacturing exporter story," WIDER Working Paper Series 038, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Ana Fernandes & Heiwai Tang, 2012. "Learning from Neighbors' Export Activities: Evidence from Exporters' Survival," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0766, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    8. Conti, Giuliano & Lo Turco, Alessia & Maggioni, Daniela, 2014. "Spillovers through backward linkages and the export performance of business services. Evidence from a sample of Italian firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 552-565.
    9. Zahler, Andrés, 2007. "Decomposing world export growth and the relevance of new destinations," MPRA Paper 30295, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Nguyen, Daniel X., 2012. "Demand uncertainty: Exporting delays and exporting failures," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 336-344.
    11. Mulder, Nanno & Park, Hyunju & Park, Yuri, 2018. "Export innovation of SMEs through the extensive margin in Latin America," Comercio Internacional 44113, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    12. Olivier Cadot & Céline Carrère & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2013. "Trade Diversification, Income, And Growth: What Do We Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 790-812, September.
    13. Kalina Manova & Zhiwei Zhang, 2008. "China's exporters and importers: firms, products, and trade partners," Working Paper Series 2008-28, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    14. Khalid Sekkat, 2016. "Export Orientation and Exchange Rate Changes: Do Firms React Differently and Why?," Working Papers 989, Economic Research Forum, revised Apr 2016.
    15. Maurice Kugler & Eric Verhoogen, 2012. "Prices, Plant Size, and Product Quality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(1), pages 307-339.
    16. Hess, Wolfgang & Persson, Maria, 2009. "Survival and Death in International Trade - Discrete-Time Durations of EU Imports," Working Papers 2009:12, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    17. Yuko Imura, 2013. "Endogenous Trade Participation with Incomplete Exchange Rate Pass-Through," Staff Working Papers 13-30, Bank of Canada.
    18. Meyer, Birgit, 2020. "How deep is your love? Innovation, Upgrading and the Depth of Internationalization," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224584, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Coxhead, Ian A. & Foltz, Jeremy D. & Mogues, Tewodaj, 2012. "Does freer trade really lead to productivity growth? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124958, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Bahar, Dany & Santos, Miguel A., 2018. "One more resource curse: Dutch disease and export concentration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 102-114.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General
    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance
    • F5 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wboper:17038. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tal Ayalon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.