Deindustrialization in Brazil: Economic Crises, Policy Failures and Challenges from 1980s to 2000s

Abstract: Brazil became a successful industrialization case from the 1930s to the 1970s based on the developmentalist economic model, both ideologically and as a State economic policy, placing the country in the international scenario as an important industrial economy. However, several economic crises over the course of a decade led to the process of deindustrialization and reprimarization of the economy. Throughout this period, in three historic landmarks, priority was given to short-term macroeconomics, leaving industrial policies in the background. The first milestone addresses the crisis of the 1980s; the second, the trade opening of the 1990s and the third, the real plan and currency stabilization. The adopted macroeconomic policies, contrasting with the industrial policies, during this period between the early 1980s and 1990s, brought to Brazil the loss of medium-high and high technology industries and led the country to be a primary exporter and, therefore, a consumer of technology.

Key words: deindustrialization, economic crisis, industrial policies, macroeconomic policies 

JEL code: O140