Technological self‐reliance in Brazil: Achievements and prospects—some evidence from the non‐serial capital goods sector

Abstract

In the course of the 1990s, the Brazilian economy has undergone an unprecedented programme of liberalization. Barriers to trade have been lowered, the scope of industrial policy has narrowed and the state has radically scaled down its role as producer, following the launch of an ambitious privatization programme. This article traces the impact of these developments on the technological behaviour of one crucial industrial sector: the non‐serial capital goods sector. While economic liberalization appears to have had a favourable effect upon technological dynamism in the field of process innovation, the same cannot be said of product innovation. Following the onset of liberalization, the intensified pursuit of short‐run cost efficiency served only to reinforce long‐established conservative product innovation strategies. In the main, these have emphasized the foreign rather than domestic sourcing of technology. Such strategies, it is argued, are currently preventing the sector from realizing its full potential as a generator and diffuser of industrial technology.