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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2012 version)

  Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth

  Laura Alfaro and Hilary White

  Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil, known as "Custo Brasil," was hurting domestic manufacturing, while incoming foreign investments threatened to overwhelm Brazilian markets. Under President Dilma Rousseff, economic growth stagnated, and the Rousseff administration struggled to find the best balance between reducing inflation, maintaining a flexible exchange rate, and improving the competitiveness of Brazilian exports.

  Keywords: capital controls; inflation; Exchange rates; stimulus; competitiveness; productivity growth; foreign investment; infrastructure; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Brazil;

  Citation:

  Alfaro, Laura, and Hilary White. "Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth." Harvard Business School Case 713-040, April 2013. (Revised from original October 2012 version.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2011 version)

  Debt and Development in Jamaica

  Rafael Di Tella, Gunnar Trumbull and Natalie Kindred

  This case describes the economic development problems faced by the small Caribbean-island country of Jamaica over most of the past half-century. The Jamaican economy showed relatively strong growth in the 1960s but stagnated in the 1970s. By the end of that decade, Jamaica was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for balance-of-payments support. Over the 1980s and early 1990s, the unpopular policy conditions associated with IMF loan programs made the Fund a lightning rod for criticism over Jamaica's lack of economic progress. Jamaicans celebrated the end of IMF borrowing in the mid-1990s, but a severe financial crisis later that decade created a new layer of economic problems. In 2010, in the context of the global economic downturn, Jamaica once again returned to the IMF for financing support. This case allows students to explore the complicated economic difficulties faced by Jamaica, which remains burdened by a self-reinforcing set of interrelated factors, including high public debt, a sluggish private sector, an inefficient public sector, poverty, and crime, among others.

  Keywords: History; Government Administration; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Finance; Crime and Corruption; Poverty; Private Sector; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Developing Countries and Economies; Jamaica;

  Citation:

  Di Tella, Rafael, Gunnar Trumbull, and Natalie Kindred. "Debt and Development in Jamaica." Harvard Business School Case 711-031, April 2013. (Revised from original April 2011 version.)

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• Guest Column | Nación (Costa Rica) | April 7, 2013

  Infraestructura en América Latina [Infrastructure in Latin America: A perspective from the HBS Latin America Conference]

  Laura Alfaro

  Citation:

  Alfaro, Laura. "Infraestructura en América Latina [Infrastructure in Latin America: A perspective from the HBS Latin America Conference]." Nación (Costa Rica) (April 7, 2013).

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