O todo e as partes: uma análise da desigualdade de crédito entre os estados brasileiros e os determinantes do crédito bancário com a aplicação de dados em painel

This paper deals with the distribution of banking credit and branchs by Brazilian states between 1994 and 2002. Besides the report of the major changes in the National Financial System at that period, it shows also some figures of concentration and dynamics of state-level banking credit and, with finer statistical tools, some inferences of the determinants of banking credit in Brazil, based upon Panel Data Analysis. The main results point out to significant credit concentration in the Southeast region (especially São Paulo) and, as its major determinant, the change in the shares control of banks with sharp regional presence ? deriving of mergers and acquisitions in the sector along this period. That control changing have had as its corollary the transfer of strategical decisions ? viz. credit-related decisions ?, concentrating them in the Southeast. Against our expectations at the beginning of the paper, the privatization of state-owned banks did not show important effects on the level of banking credit.