Foreign Trade, Industrial Production Structures, Employment and Income in the Brazilian macroregions (2004-2014).

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between the insertion of foreign trade and the productive structures, employment and income in the five Brazilian macroregions. It demonstrates how, during the period between 2004 and 2014, the national economic space was heterogeneously linked to the country’s trade pattern as an exporter of natural resource-intensive goods. Regional indicators were developed based on the following data: foreign trade, industrial structure, employment and income. Amongst the main conclusions, the paper emphasises that: the macroregions increased their exports of commodities, particularly the North, the South and the Southeast; the trade insertion is related to changes in the regional production structures with an increased contribution from natural resource-intensive activities in the composition of the GDP; the natural resource-intensive export-oriented activities demonstrated a low capacity for creating employment, and which was predominantly concentrated in the lower income bracket.

Keywords:
regional productive structure; foreign trade; regional development; employment; national development