O Impacto regional das políticas econômicas no Brasil

Resumo

This article presents a survey o f the regional economic policies of the federal government since World War II. It shows how explicit concern with regional problems were absent in the country's early development plans, and only began to appear from the early sixties on. The analysis shows, however, that the regional plans of the federal government were not synchronized with sectorial development plans. In fact, the regional policies implicit in the sectorial plans were often contradictory to the aims of the explicit regional plans. An attempt is made to measure the regional impact of sectorial programs. The results show these to favor the more developed region of the Southeast of the country.

The article also shows the constant existence of a conflict between efficiency and equity in the regional allocation of economic activities. In times of general economic crises, such as balance of payments problems or inflation, regional equity problems are usually relegated to second place. Finally, increased preoccupation in Brazil with the problems of large metropolitan areas might also result in public expenditure patterns favoring the more advanced regions.