Investment In Brazil Research Articles

Chinese Investment in Brazil: Can It Match the Relevance of Bilateral Trade?

In this article we explore the political economy of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (COFDI) in Brazil, and the impact of investment and other economic links on Brazilian foreign policy toward China. The warming of Brazil’s relations with China after 2003 had much to do with the perceptions of then president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was particularly impressed by the astounding growth of bilateral trade and believed the two countries shared a similar level of socioeconomic development. Lula’s domestic political challenges, the country’s prioritization of South-South relations, and some institutional changes further reshaped Brazil’s stance toward China. Unlike bilateral trade, Chinese investments did not exert a powerful influence on Brazilian policy toward China, though expectations of greater COFDI did have some impact.

Use of Contaminated Sludge in Concrete

Brazil, the 5th largest country by landmass and the 8th largest by Gross Domestic Product, continues to grow both in population as well as in construction. Major construction investments in Brazil has increased the demand for concrete. Taking into account the constant growth in population in the past 20 years, this paper presents an innovative solution that could potentially decrease the cost of concrete, while also helping to preserve the environment. The solution proposes using the hazardous waste (sludge) from Brazil's water purification system, Estação de Tratamento de Água (ETA), as an alternative aggregate for concrete. Sludge is a type of hazardous waste produced by the water purification process. With the dramatic growth in Brazil's population, the demand for drinking water has caused there to be an overabundance of hazardous waste. Sludge, if disposed inappropriately, harms the environment. Using sludge in concrete will minimize the amount harming the environment and provide a low-cost solution to aggregates needed in concrete. The research reviews and analyzes the implementation and feasibility of this solution.

Big Push e investimentos fixos públicos no Brasil: um balanço da primeira década dos anos 2000

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8085.2015v18n2p1O trabalho apresenta uma extensão de inspiração keynesiana ao modelo de big push de Rosenstein Rodan, que focaliza o papel dos investimentos fixos públicos como importante fator de estímulo aos investimentos privados, com um choque exógeno para o crescimento econômico. Este arcabouço teórico é o pano de fundo para uma análise da importância dos investimentos fixos públicos no Brasil nos anos 2000, inclusive com comparações com décadas anteriores. A principal conclusão é que o Estado brasileiro, historicamente, desempenha um papel de coordenação de importantes investimentos fixos como, por exemplo, em infraestrutura, o que é fundamental para induzir o crescimento econômico de longo prazo da economia brasileira. Nesse sentido, são apresentados e discutidos dados dos investimentos fixos no Brasil, de fontes nacionais e internacionais.

US Foundations in Brazil and the Funding of the Human Rights Field – Data and Trends from 2003 to 2012

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the presence of US philanthropy in Brazil with regards to the field of human rights from 2003 to 2012, using data from the Foundation Center on 1896 grants totaling $336M. Human rights NGOs are especially important in Brazil. Despite recent growth and development, it is a country that still faces many social, political and human rights challenges. But the local field is still largely dependent on international funding, and US foundations play a traditional and vital role in this scenario, thus it is important to understand recent changes on American foundations priorities. The numbers indicate that the US investment in Brazil is concentrated in few areas (environment and human rights account for 50% of the amount invested), and these priorities are clearly different from those in the Brazilian philanthropic agenda (more focused on education, income generation, youth and community development). When we focus on human rights, we must underline that the investment in human rights by American foundations is quite notable. Not only is Brazil the country in which there were more investments in this topic in the last 10 years, but human rights is also the second field of priority in the country, right after Environment. When examining the collected data, there are four large patterns emerging: dependence on big donors, relevance of the strategy of “many small grants”, incipient grants in advocacy and possible existence of thematic niches. Of all these issues, the main challenge is that the field is very dependent on a few very large donors: Ford Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and the Global Fund for Women account for over 65% of the grants and 89% of the amount in US dollars. The Kellogg Foundation has already left Brazil to concentrate on other geographic priorities; should the Ford Foundation take a similar decision, the field of human rights in Brazil might even collapse, since Brazilian donors do not yet demonstrate enthusiasm for the subject.

The Political Economy of Public Investments in Brazil

Brazil’s under-performance in the area of infrastructure is widely recognized by policymakers and country experts. By virtually any metric the country performs poorly in comparison to other countries in the same level of development (Velloso et al 2013). Along with education, deficient infrastructure puts a drag on productivity and is consequently a major impediment to growth. While there is virtual consensus on the need to upgrade the country’s infrastructure and no shortages of diagnoses of the current status of the country infrastructure, there is little understanding of the political economy of the investments in the sector. The consensus led to the prioritizing of infrastructure in the government agenda and the launching of the Programa de Aceleracao do Crescimento (PAC) - a massive multiyear program costing some USD 0.6 trillion -, which has been characterized by serious managerial issues and tainted by corruption scandals. This report explores the political and institutional constraints holding back investments in infrastructure and the political and institutional factors explaining sub-optimal and socially inefficient outcomes in the implementation of public investment programs.Rather than simply recognizing that poor infrastructure is an important constraint to economic growth and productivity, this paper focuses on why the political choices arose and persist that led to this state of affairs and even now refrain from the obvious solution of investing more in infrastructure. By factoring into the analysis the political and institutional dynamics, it is possible to identify which interest groups are affected by policy regarding infrastructure and which are the political actors involved in making those choices. By focusing on the preferences and relative powers of these groups and actors, as well as on the nature of their interaction, all of which are determined by political institutions, a clearer picture emerges of the determinants of policy choices and outcomes that emphasizes the trade-offs, restrictions and inter dependencies with other policy areas which are crucial given the ‘general equilibrium’ nature of those choices.

Assessing the Effect of Quantitative Easing on Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil

Using econometric analysis, this paper examines the impact of quantitative easing undertaken by the Federal Reserve, on the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil from the United States. This paper focuses on quantitative easing and U.S. investment abroad and its impact specifically on emerging economies, such as Brazil. This study finds that an increase in quantitative easing leads to an increase in capital flows from the U.S. into Brazil. It is found that Brazil's GDP, the U.S. monetary base, and the foreign exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and Brazilian real all have a strong impact on the level of foreign direct investment into Brazil. A substantial positive relationship between GDP and FDI is also established.

Evoluuuo Da Taxa De Investimentos E a Induuuo Pelo Setor PPblico (Evolution of Investment Rate and Induction by the Public Sector)

Portuguese Abstract: O objetivo desta nota e atualizar as series sobre a taxa de investimento brasileiro e analisar a sua decomposicao entre principais segmentos investidores, notadamente o papel do setor publico e, por residuo, do setor privado.English Abstract: The purpose of this note is to update the series on Brazilian investment rate and analyze its decomposition between major investors segments, notably the role of the public sector, and waste, the private sector.

Brazilian agricultural activities facing foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment in agricultural land may contribute to a shift in the aim of Brazilian food policies toward commodities of higher market value instead of the ones essential to local production and also the concentration of these valuable products which may threaten the food security of this society. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of foreign direct investments in Brazil on the food security of this country.

Qual o efeito do apoio governamental à inovação sobre o gasto empresarial em P&D? Evidências do Brasil

Este artigo objetiva medir os efeitos do apoio governamental à inovação sobre o investimento em P&D das empresas da indústria de transformação do Brasil. O trabalho utiliza microdados da Pesquisa de Inovação Tecnológica, do IBGE, edições de 2005 e 2008. Observou-se que o apoio governamental não parece afetar positivamente os gastos em P&D, sugerindo, assim, que o apoio governamental vem sendo direcionado para iniciativas privadas que teriam ocorrido sem a interferência governamental. Argumenta-se, então, pela existência de um erro de foco na política de inovação e que uma postura mais associada à visão sistêmica da inovação deve ser adotada.

An evaluation on the criteria to prioritize transportation infrastructure investments in Brazil

This paper presents a study on the criteria priorities on the decisions of transportation infrastructure investments in Brazil, based on the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process – AHP. We consider the definition of a set of seven criteria and respective parameters, structured in four groups: logistics/transportation, economic/financial, social and environmental. Representatives of four different sectors, which contribute to the decision making on transportation in Brazil, were used to find their different points of view about the criteria. With the main aim of prioritization of the criteria, it was considered one of the national policies of Brazilian transportation goals, i.e., the modal split balance of interurban cargo transportation. Thus, each expert provided a pair comparisons of the criteria and pondered their relative importance, attributing weights based upon the scale used by AHP. These comparisons do not consider which projects should be prioritized, but only the importance of each criterion in relation to the others. As a main result, the criterion “reduction of transportation costs” was presented in several scenarios as the most relevant.

Crawling up the value chain: domestic institutions and non-traditional foreign direct investment in Brazil, 1990-2010

Brazil attracted relatively little innovation-intensive and export-oriented foreign investment during the liberalization period of 1990 to 2010, especially compared with competitors such as China and India. Adopting an institutionalist perspective, I argue that multinational firm investment profiles can be partly explained by the characteristics of investment promotion policies and bureaucracies charged with their implementation. Brazil's FDI policies were passive and non-discriminating in the second half of the 1990s, but became more selective under Lula. Investment promotion efforts have often been undercut by weakly coordinated and inconsistent institutions. The paper highlights the need for active, discriminating investment promotion policies if benefits from non-traditional FDI are to be realized.

Filling the Gap: Infrastructure Investment in Brazil

Infrastructure bottlenecks have been identified as a key obstacle to growth affecting productivity and market efficiency, and hindering domestic integration and export performance. This paper assesses the state of Brazil’s infrastructure, in light of past investment trends and various quality and quantity indicators. Brazil’s infrastructure stock and its quality rank low in relation to that of comparator countries, chosen amongst main export competitors. We provide evidence that infrastructure affects domestic integration by analyzing price convergence of tradable goods across major cities. The government’s concession program will narrow part of the infrastructure gap, however, governance reforms will be crucial to improving investment efficiency.

The trade-off between income distribution and the capacity of governmental public investment in Brazil

The free cash flow signals how much the state gives back or distributes to a society, without putting the capacity of investment in infrastructure at risk. The objective of this study is to evidence how the public administrators can demonstrate the amount distributed (income, benefits, and aids) to the society in order to fight the social inequality, without affecting its own capacity of making investments. We validated the analysis through the Chow test in the historical series from 1995 to 2010. The data are from the public finances in the counties of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The results obtained suggest significant evidences that the 'Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal Brasileira' (Brazilian Fiscal Responsibility Law) affected positively the cash flow available for the society, giving the state a greater income distribution potential without risking the capacity of making investments in infrastructure, signalling improvement in the quality of the Brazilian public expense.

Filling the Gap: Infrastructure Investment in Brazil

Infrastructure bottlenecks have been identified as a key obstacle to growth affecting productivity and market efficiency, and hindering domestic integration and export performance. This paper assesses the state of Brazil’s infrastructure, in light of past investment trends and various quality and quantity indicators. Brazil’s infrastructure stock and its quality rank low in relation to that of comparator countries, chosen amongst main export competitors. We provide evidence that infrastructure affects domestic integration by analyzing price convergence of tradable goods across major cities. The government’s concession program will narrow part of the infrastructure gap, however, governance reforms will be crucial to improving investment efficiency.

Local complementary inputs as drivers of entry mode choices: The case of US investments in Brazil

The theory of entry mode choice has modeled that choice as solely determined by the foreign investor. Hennart's bundling model, on the other hand, argues that foreign entry into a host market involves the bundling of intangibles contributed by the foreign investor with local complementary inputs contributed by local actors, and that the chosen mode of entry will be the one that maximizes the joint gains of both parties. That chosen mode will depend on the relative efficiency of the various markets on which intangibles and complementary assets can be bundled. We test the model on a sample of US entries into Brazil. We find that the number of available suppliers of local complementary assets and the degree of concentration of the Brazilian industry are significant determinants of the choice US investors make between joint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries, and between greenfields and acquisitions, thus providing support for the model.

Agricultural Development and Food Security in Africa: The Impact of Chinese, Indian and Brazilian Investments, edited by FantuCheru and RenuModi. London: Zed Books. 2013. Pp. xxiv+256. £21.99 (hb). ISBN: 978-1-78032-371-8

Agricultural Development and Food Security in Africa: The Impact of Chinese, Indian and Brazilian Investments, edited by FantuCheru and RenuModi. London: Zed Books. 2013. Pp. xxiv+256. £21.99 (hb). ISBN: 978-1-78032-371-8

Research and Development Financing in the Renewable Energy Industry in Brazil

In the last decades, the Brazilian government has put many public policies in place in order to create a favourable environment to promote energy efficiency and clean energy. In this paper we discuss the use of research and development financing support by the clean energy industry in Brazil. To do so, we carried out an empirical research analysing secondary data from legislation, literature case studies, and public and industry reports in order to determine if the companies of the clean energy industry have public financial support to research and development. Our ongoing research shows that, despite incentives to stimulate the dissemination of clean energy, the participation of some of the clean energy is very small (especially solar). We believe that the contributions of this study will assist policy makers, and the whole industry, to improve clean energy research and development investments in Brazil.

Análise do Comportamento Estratégico de Pequenas Empresas no Brasil

Over recent years, small businesses have been the target of public and private investment in Brazil due to the appreciation of their economic and social impact. The growth of small businesses in Brazil has stimulated a demand for greater knowledge and a broader understanding of their peculiarities. Hence, this paper aims to propose a framework for analyzing the strategic behavior for small businesses. To test the suitability of this analytical framework, qualitative research was conducted based on descriptive and exploratory case studies involving three small companies in the construction sector in the Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. The results show that: (i) based on the proposed analytical structure it was possible to identify the idiosyncrasies and the conflicts between strategy, structure and processes in such firms; (ii) the strategic behavior of the firms is not stable, since they demonstrate the ability to change the prevailing strategic behavior based on strategic decisions that reinforce the strategic typologies studied and; (iii) it is possible to identify opportunities to strengthen certain strategic behavior of firms.

Mortgages for machinery: credit and industrial investment in pre-World War I Brazil

How could a primitive credit market finance the early industrialisation of an underdeveloped economy? To answer this question, we use a hand-collected data set of mortgage loans raised by industrial firms in the city of São Paulo during the period 1866-1914. These mortgages were debt obligations collateralised by land, improvements, machinery and equipment. We argue that the mortgage credit market was a key source of funding for early industrial investments in Brazil. We find that industries were mainly funded by non-banking and domestic agents. The empirical evidence suggests that mortgages were an important proxy for industrial investment.

Regional Inequality in the Spatial Distribution of Venture Capital Investments in Brazil

This study examines the relationship between institutional void and the regional inequality of the spatial distribution of venture capital (VC) investments in Brazil during the initial phases of co...