In the structuralist approach, the industry sector has an outstanding function in the dynamics of an economy due to the fact several features are intrinsic to this economic sector. Among other important authors in this field, Raúl Prebisch, Celso Furtado, Albert Hirschman, and Nicholas Kaldor have given significant contributions to the understanding of this complex issue. These authors have studied extensively the relationship between economic development dynamics and structural change, placing emphasis on the role played by the industrial sector in this process. Based on the initial arguments of the above cited authors, the present paper aims at investigating the effects of the Brazilian economy structural change on its performance, highlighting the industrial sector role in the period 1948-2007.
economic growth; structural change; industrial sector; vector autoregression model (VAR)
