ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the main findings of a major research project from the World Bank. It takes a broad look at how increasing productivity – especially through innovation – would benefit both growth and social inclusion in Brazil, and then examines some of the main obstacles, especially in policies, to boosting productivity. Among the core policy constraints are trade protection and weak competition in domestic markets. Despite very little productivity growth in aggregate in Brazil’s economy in recent decades, agricultural productivity has advanced rapidly and offers some lessons for policies to enhance productivity in other sectors.
