Member's Documents
Assessing Firm-Support Programs in Brazil
Published by: Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight
Increasing productivity is generally considered to be the only sustainable way of improving living standards in the long term. The Brazilian economy has had periods of strong growth, particularly until 2010, but the country has performed poorly in terms of aggregate productivity. The federal government has implemented many programs aimed at boosting firm growth and fostering competitiveness in Brazilian industries, though knowledge about their results to date is scarce. This study provides an overview of various Brazilian programs of firm support — including productive finance, business consulting, value chain, export promotion, and innovation support — as well as an assessment of the effects of a subset of these programs on productivity, employment, and real wages. Access to a unique dataset on Brazilian firms and beneficiaries allowed the Office of Evaluation and Oversight to analyze these programs over an 11-year period, 2002 to 2012.
