Editorial
Economy
8 matérias
Brazil won the continuous casting race. It is not in the next one
In 1990, Brazil continuously cast 58% of its steel, against South Korea's 96%. Today it casts 99.6% — ahead of Korea. The gap closed and reversed. But when you look for Brazil in the table of the technology that defines today's industrial frontier, something other than being behind happens: it is not in the table.
The cushion is back — and industry is no longer under it
In 2025 Brazil exported a record US$348.7 billion, with record volumes of iron ore, soybeans and oil all at once. In the same country, manufacturing accounts for less than 11% of GDP. An LSE thesis explained how the wealth of the soil financed Brazil's factories. This investigation asks what happened to the plumbing between the two.
The protection that never reaches those who need it most
When South Korea democratized and built labor protection, in 1988, it designed a door with a specific measure: only firms with more than ten employees. Everyone below stayed outside. Brazil has an equivalent door — except it does not measure company size. It measures what the working relationship is called. And 38.5 million people are on the outside of it.
The carmaker far less efficient than Toyota — and far more profitable
Between 1985 and 1996, Hyundai posted a higher profit rate than Toyota — while being far less productive. A London School of Economics dissertation shows why this apparent absurdity is in fact the rule that organizes global industry — and why Brazil, with equally low wages, was left out.
South Korea didn't get rich because it studied — it studied because it got rich
The most repeated explanation of the Korean miracle says it all began in the classroom. A London School of Economics thesis shows the order of events was the other way around: when Korea started exporting, its people had fewer years of schooling than Brazilians. What it had was something else — and the price showed up in the accident and mortality figures.
The Steel Mill the World Bank Said Should Not Exist
In 1968, South Korea decided to build a steel mill larger than its own market, against everyone's advice. Two decades later, POSCO was running at 99% of capacity while Brazil's state-owned mills lost money. An LSE dissertation shows where the real difference lay — and it was not managerial competence.
The Country That Profited Without Having to Compete
A London School of Economics thesis compares Brazil and South Korea across fifty years and reaches an uncomfortable explanation for the Brazilian puzzle: industry here was profitable without being efficient because it lived off a slice of the wealth of the soil. Without competing, there was no reason to learn how to compete.
The dollar figure that lies: how to read "labor cost"
Between 2012 and 2025, Brazil's minimum wage rose 144% in reais and fell 15% in dollars. Same wage, same country, same period — and two opposite conclusions about the cost of labor in Brazil. This Sip Dölyn investigation redoes the math from Banco Central data and shows why the currency you measure in decides the answer.