Da substituição de importações às exportações: as experiências argentina e brasileira no campo das exportações de manufaturados

Abstract

In this paper is shown that, in the large and relatively more industrialized economies of Argentina and Brazil, exports resulted not only from further processing of natural resources, in which these countries enjoyed a comparative advantage, but also from manufactures that they learned to produce during the import substitution phase. The paper examines the evolution of manufactured exports composition from 1960 to 1980, and discusses hypotheses linking the growth of manufactured exports to industrial growth and to tile characteristics of exported goods, The effects of export incentives and the economic efficiency of those exports are also considered. It concludes that the substantial growth of manufactured exports during the 1970s in both Argentina and Brazil was not the mere result of export incentives. Available estimates of static efficiency also indicate that these exports were not excessively costly forms of earning foreign exchange. Moreover, dynamic benefits, such as increased capacity utilization, economies of scale and technological learning were in all likelihood also attained through these exports.