Trade openness and income inequality: analysis for brazilian regions

This work studies the effects of trade liberalization and globalization over income distribution in the Brazilian regions taking into account the spatial dimension. The empirical model is based on the model developed by Venables and Limão (2002), who formalized the relationship between regional specialization and geographical location, and showed that production and trade patterns depend not only on the endowments of each region, but also the geographical location and transport costs. Panel data models for target markets were estimated using Brazilian export data. The results indicate that in the more developed regions of Brazil the behavior of relative wages seems to follow the predictions of the Stolper-Samuelson theory, while in the developing regions (North and Northeast), relative wages for unskilled labor are smaller, a result that despite being contrary to the Stolper-Samuelson effect has been predicted by the theoretical model presented.