Determinantes da produtividade no Brasil e no Chile a partir do final do século XX: um estudo acerca do debate entre as correntes neoclássica e heterodoxa

Abstract

This research seeks to analyze the key-variables for productivity growth, with emphasis on the Brazilian and Chilean cases. Therefore, there has been exposed the most important concepts from both orthodox and heterodox views on the matter, in order to set definitions to productivity and to what should be considered as a determinant for its growth. Hence, there were presented available empirical studies that stress the subject of productivity and its determinants, focusing on two specific countries: Brazil and Chile. As both theoretical and empirical literatures were reviewed, the research turns to the available international data, as it looks to analyze those countries’ economies in order to find possible answers to the posed question, in addition to the empirical studies previously presented. In conclusion, this research considers that the heterodox concepts seem to be more clearly spotted while studying those two countries, since data suggest that the decreasing participation of the manufacturing sector played an important role on preventing the increased human capital and innovation indexes to be fully converted into productivity, while there has been spotted possible correlations between industrial production and productivity, as well as the latter and the productivity of the total economy, that would confirm the heterodox concepts around the fact that investments aiming productivity growth generate greater impact when applied to more productive sectors, and that manufacturing is indeed the key to economic growth.