Crescimento econômico e restrição externa no Brasil: uma análise a partir da hipótese de Thirlwall

Abstract

The main objective of the present dissertation was to verify if the balance of payments was a limitation to Brazilian economic growth, in the period of the years 1995 to 2013, considering the Thirwall's Law (1979). In order to achieve this goal, export and import demand functions were estimated by two econometric models: vector error correction (VAR/VEC) and structural state space model for the period of 1995-2013. The export and import demand functions were also estimated by the structural state space model for the period of 2001-2013, with the intention of verifying the impact of the commodities price increase and the increase in the demand for these goods in the estimated parameters. According to the analysis of this period, it has been noticed that commoditization process in the Brazilian exports agenda has increased the problem of Brazilian external constraint. In the estimation of the export demand function, using the VAR/VEC model, it was included a variable which represented commodities price. The empiric results of this paper confirm that the balance of payments is a constraint to the Brazilian economic growth, given the ratio between exports and imports income elasticities and, also, the exports low sensitivity to the real exchange. Thus, the adjustment of the balance of trade by soft alterations in the exchange rate have little efficiency for the Brazilian case. Furthermore, the exports are more sensitive to the commodities price than to the real exchange rate.