In the 1990s Brazil launched a comprehensive economic liberalization program. It lifted its trade barriers, adopted new market-oriented regulations, opened up its capital market and abandoned earlier efforts to internalize production and to build vertically integrated systems across several sectors of the economy. In spite of the visible gap that separated the top global giants from the large local enterprises, Brazilian companies seemed to be willing to join in an economic liberalization process that was bound to expose them to unprecedented levels of competition, bring about a high degree of uncertainty and, in many cases, ultimately put their own businesses at risk. Big Business and Brazil’s Economic Reforms examines the most emblematic aspect of the Brazilian economic reforms, the support from parts of the local entrepreneurial class for the opening up of the economy. It investigates the reasons why Brazil carried out these economic reforms in the 1990s, the transition process and the impact of the opening up of the economy on some of its most important sectors, such as the aerospace, auto and auto parts, food processing, oil and petrochemicals, ethanol, steel, telecoms and telecom equipment industries. This book offers an in-depth analysis of Brazil’s distinctive development paths, from the Latin American economic thinking of the early stages of its industrialization to the neo-liberal stance of the present day. It sheds new light on one of the main challenges facing all the large developing economies in their move to become more integrated into the world economy, the fostering of large enterprises, and is a great resource for students and researchers interested in global business, development economics, and Latin American economic history.

This groundbreaking work is the first volume in English to examine Brazil's historic policy reforms of the 1990s and the political, economic, and social results. For years the large and ineffective government of Brazil could neither improve the country's greatly uneven distribution of wealth nor maintain inflation at reasonable levels. In the 1990s, long overdue changes bettered the government's fiscal performance, tamed inflation, and addressed chronic social ills stemming from the imbalance of wealth. But many problems, and many questions, remain. Why is Brazil still so poor, and why is inequality so intransigent? Were some of the reforms counterproductive, or could they have been implemented in a more effective way? Collecting essays by top Brazilianist scholars from various disciplines and intellectual traditions, Reforming Brazil provides new insights for international policy makers, economists, and scholars of Brazil.

The 1990s represented for several Latin American countries, Brazil in particular, a remarkable period. New international scenario and changes in the traditional way of economic policymaking have led to an unprecedented economic environment, with low inflation rates, broader access to imported goods and reduced interference from the State, among other characteristics.By the end of such a unique period the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a United Nations agency, sponsored a regionwide project of growth and equity in Latin America in the 1990s, as an effort to improve the knowledge of the economic reforms undertaken in Latin America during that decade. This book presents the main results of the project for the Brazilian economy, with systematic information and analysis of several aspects of those unprecedented changes. The works published here were made by well-known Brazilian experts, several of them with previous high-ranking experience in the public sector.

Doktorarbeit / Dissertation aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Politik - Politische Systeme - Allgemeines und Vergleiche, Universitat Duisburg-Essen, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The pace and scope of the Brazilian economic development in the 1980s and 1990s is intrinsically linked to the wide-ranging discussion of political and economic reform projects. In the wake of the crisis of the import-substitution economic model a wide array of approaches and theories revolved around one basic question: When there occurs a crisis in the economy - whatever definition of crisis may be applied in a particular case - which are the best ways of overcoming anti-reform resistances, regain economic growth and promote sustainable and future-approved development? In the most general sense a crisis of the political or economic system can be referred to as two-dimensional: on the one hand it means the shattering and dis-equilibrating of a formerly successful status quo, on the other hand it opens up the necessity to find a new status quo (or status quo post) that can be deemed compatible to the new economic, domestic as well as international, circumstances. In fact, the longer a prosperous status quo lasts, the more difficult a subsequent change will get. Path-dependencies develop, stable institutions arise, group interests and organizations take root and expectations about growth, inflation, external trade and other variables cement into place.

The 1990s saw lower- and middle-income countries throughout the world come under pressure to open their domestic markets to international trade and investment. Despite the progressive implementation of market-friendly policies, many emerging market countries experienced financial market volatility, exchange rate collapse, and slumps in output. These problems profoundly affected two of the world's largest middle-income industrialized countries —Brazil and South Korea. Despite superficial similarities, prior to the onset of crisis both countries had very different models of industrialization and had adopted contrasting approaches to trade and market reform.This collection analyzes the factors underlying the economic crises in South Korea and Brazil, pointing out areas of similarity and divergence. It also reviews the paths of recovery taken by both economies, examining the role of policy and variations in structural characteristics. Contributors include André Averburg (United Nations Development Programme/ Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, Brazil), Fabio Giambiagi (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social), Andrea Goldstein (OECD Development Centre), Louise Haagh (Department of Politics, University of York), Tat Yan Kong (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), José Ricardo Ramalho (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Ben Ross Schneider (Center for International and Comparative Studies, Northwestern University), and Jaang-Sup Shin (Department of Economics, National University of Singapore).