Industrialization and economic development in Brazil /

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references: p. 203-208.

The book opens with a brief introduction to Brazil's economic history, physical characteristics, and political background. Two chapters then summarize industrialization patterns before and after World War II and set the stage for more extended treatment of the latter period. Chapter 4 concerns itself with the principal policy-making entities of the Brazilian government and with a sketch of the make-up and importance of the private sector of the economy.

They are sketchy and do not afford an adequate introduction to the Brazilian economy, its economic growth, or its industrialization. Nor do the introductory chapters really introduce the three analytical chapters which follow, as the reader is bound to wonder why only these topics were selected for analytical treatment.

The introductory half of the book acquaint the reader with Brazil's industrial backwardness before World War II and her rapid industrial growth since the war. It also serves to state and re-state Baer's firm conviction that the two major forces determining Brazil's industrial growth were her government's pro-industrialization policies and her difficult balance of-payments problems.

The financing of industrialization in Brazil is discussed in Chapter 5. Most of this discussion is given over to an analysis of inflation, particularly of inflation as a means of transferring resources from the consuming to the investing sectors of the economy. A model of the inflationary process is included and is said to be based directly on observation of Brazil's experience.

Chapter 6, co-authored with Isaac Kerstenetzky is a revision of an article published by the two authors in the American Economic Review. In it an attempt is made to measure the impact of the expansion of a number of industrial sub-sectors on the Brazilian economy at large, to relate sub-sector expansion to import-substitution, and to relate this expansion to growth of domestic demand. The outline of a rapidly-growing, well-balanced industrial sector which emerges from this discussion is intriguing, and the reader wants to know more about why these things happened.

In Chapter 7, "Imbalances and Bottlenecks in the Brazilian Economy" are considered. Chief among these are the lag in agricultural development, the regional imbalance of the Brazilian economy, the difficulties with electric power, and the inadequate provision for education. Professor Baer's treatment of agriculture reminds us again of the dismal results of neglecting agricultural reform and agricultural investment. His discussion of regional imbalance is the best short treatment of this topic I have seen, especially with reference to the problems of Brazil's famous "Northeast."

lje 17/01/2018

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