La dynamique spatiale de la croissance économique au Brésil (1970-2000) : une approche empirique*

<italic>This paper uses contemporary tools to analyse the spatial dynamics of Brazilian economic growth (1970-2000). Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, Markov chains and stochastic kernel techniques (spatially conditioned) are combined and applied to GDP per capita of Minimum Comparable Areas (MCAs) in Brazil and its regions. MCAs tended to converge to their neighbours’classes, with higher probability in upper classes, and divergent trajectories were frequent. The results corroborate the role of space and the fact that usual convergence tests are unsatisfactory to depict the dynamics of economic growth in Brazil.</italic>