‘BLACK SWANS’ IN BRAZILIAN ENERGY INDUSTRY: IMPACTS OF 2014’S PETROBRAS SCANDAL AND THE COVID-19 CRISIS

Abstract

This paper undertakes an analytical and descriptive effort intended to comprehend as well as to enumerate some of the developments that followed two major ‘Black Swan’ events in Brazilian economic history, namely the 2014’s Petrobras scandal and the recent COVID-19 crisis, with a special emphasis on a brief discussion and presentation of its most prominent impacts on the energy segment, as well as on Brazil’s political economy scenario. Two ‘Black Swan’ type events that occurred in recent Brazilian economic history can be considered as watershed moments for the country’s earlier path of development. In the first case, we aim to demonstrate how State-owned Petrobras corruption scandals jeopardized Brazil’s emergence in international affairs during the early 2000s; notwithstanding, the paper also aims to exemplify how the most recent COVID-19 pandemic became yet another factor to bring about a new series of political as well as economic turbulences to the Latin American country.