Credit rating agencies and developmentalism: is there room for conciliation?

• Autor(a) principal: Machado, Pedro Lange Netto
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Conjuntura Austral
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/ConjunturaAustral/article/view/100528
• topic: Agências de rating; Globalização financeira; Desenvolvimentismo; Credit rating agencies; financial globalization; developmentalism.

The article analyzes credit rating agencies' behavior in face of the adoption of developmentalist policies by Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff governments. It aims, from a post-Keynesian perspective, associated with theoretical and empirical observations of the literature about emerging economies' integration to financial globalization and the role of the agencies in the international financial system, to understand the restrictions imposed by these companies on alternative economic policies to the neoliberal orthodoxy that guide their evaluations. The working hypothesis is that the pro-cyclical nature of their activities makes room for them to tolerate or even encourage the adoption of developmentalist instruments at specific times of economic growth. This is suggested by the ratings they issued to Brazilian public bonds during the regarded period, when new or social-developmental strategies were adopted, and it is also observed in their published reports and in statements from their executives. It is intended, with this research, to reflect on the prospects for implementing developmentalist strategies in the context of financial globalization, as well as to better understand the purpose and modus operandi of credit rating agencies, which are actors still little explored academically.