Trade patterns in a globalized world: the case of Brazil (original) (raw)

Globalization can be defined as the extent and intensity with which a country’s production, trade and capital flows are integrated in the world economy. Our focus is on the globalization through international trade flows. After analyzing the main theoretical predictions about the effects of global trade integration on trade patterns between countries of different levels of income and technology, this paper investigates the case of Brazil, focusing on its trade integration over the last 26 years (1990-2016). Particularly, we are interested in investigating whether or not (and if so, to what extent) Brazil’s recent trajectory has been directed to a regressive pattern of specialization. By regressive specialization we refer to that in which both production and export structures are strongly oriented to goods of low technological sophistication and low income-elasticity of demand. The recent theoretical literature on technological gaps and long-term growth suggests that, when a country ...