The Brazilian economy suffered major changes in the second half
of the 1990s, when price stabilization, trade liberalization with an
overvalued exchange rate and privatizations altered productive processes
in various sectors and led to import substitution, among other phenomena.
Import substitution occurred in particular following the reform of the
exchange-rate regime, which entailed a substantial devaluation in early
1999. This article seeks to measure the intensity of that process,
distinguishing effects that can be related to exchange-rate variations
induced by relative prices alone (spontaneous import substitution); from
those that reflect levels of effective protection (import substitution induced
by trade policy);.