Arms for export? A reappraisal of the Brazilian arms industry

Diego Lopes da Silva ()
Additional contact information
Diego Lopes da Silva: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Stockholm, Sweden.

Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 2020, vol. 15, issue 1, 31-38

Abstract: There is a near-consensus among scholars and policymakers that the principal factor leading to Brazil’s arms industry crisis was its dependence on exports. However, the diffusion of the arms export-dependence argument contrasts with the lack of empirical support for it. Currently, there are no recent studies consistently estimating the overall size of Brazil’s arms production nor its reliance on external markets. Without a proper measurement of Brazil’s domestic procurement capacity, any assessment of its external dependence is only partial. To address this issue, this article uses data on domestic procurement previously introduced by the author to re-evaluate Brazil’s dependence on arms exports. While certainly important, the export-dependence argument has been overstated. Indeed, a fall in demand in the late 1980s led to a major decrease in Brazilian arms exports. However, the state managed to absorb a significant part of the production until mid-1990s. The data on domestic procurement sheds new light on institutional explanations for Brazil’s arms industry crisis.

Keywords: Arms industry; exports; domestic procurement; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 H56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.epsjournal.org.uk/index.php/EPSJ/article/view/330 (application/pdf)
Open access 24 months after original publication.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epc:journl:v:15:y:2020:i:1:p:31-38

DOI: 10.15355/epsj.15.1.31

Access Statistics for this article

Economics of Peace and Security Journal is currently edited by Michael Brown and J Paul Dunne

More articles in Economics of Peace and Security Journal from EPS Publishing Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael Brown, Managing Editor, EPSJ ().