Regional concentration patterns of the Brazilian manufacturing industry

Abstract The study analyzes changes in regional concentration patterns of the Brazilian manufacturing industry in recent period (2007-2014). By means of a density function / estimated from the agglomeration index of Elisson-Glaeser, it was found that the Brazilian industry faces a process of geographical deconcentration that evolves rapidly, around 2.7 % per year, but with varying intensity among sectors and Brazilian macro-regions. Thus, there is a faster process in the North and Northeast, less in the South and Southeast and stagnant in the Midwest, which accentuated the process of regional disparity. The most striking changes occurred in the North and resulted from the poor performance of the capital goods and durables industry, concentrated in the Manaus Free Trade Zone. In the South, geographical deconcentration occurs slowly and evenly across sectors of the manufacturing industry.