A LOCALIZAÇÃO DA INDÚSTRIA DE TRANSFORMAÇÃO BRASILEIRA NAS ÚLTIMAS TRÊS DÉCADAS

The purpose of this article is to investigate the geographic distribution of the Brazilian industrial sectors over the last three decades. The Gini and Venables Indices are used to measure the concentration. In the latter, the distance between the states is taken into account in measuring this concentration. The industrial sectors are separated into three groups using the K-means method of clustering in which the variables used are the principal components of the characteristics of the industries. By using an internal product, the State Characteristic Bias (SCB), the type of states in which the industrial sectors are being concentrated or not can be observed. In order to visualize which characteristics of the states and of the industries-and their respective interactions-influence the location of the industrial sectors within Brazil, an econometric cross-section model proposed by Midelfart-Knarvik, et al. (2000) is established for the Brazilian case. The main results show that heavy investment in infrastructure in the 1970s and the opening of trade in the 1990s played an important role in the location of Brazilian industry.