Sectoral proximity in the Brazilian manufacturing industry

Abstract This study evaluates the proximity in productive and technological terms between 100 manufacturing sectors, offering a new measure of cognitive proximity. There are three contributions: an unprecedented neighborhood matrix created with information on multiproduct plants; a new index that captures productive and technological skills related to worker’s occupation; and a method of spatial econometrics were used in an innovative way to evaluate the sectoral proximity. Was used unpublished information from a special tabulation of PIA-Empresa/IBGE. Statistical analyzes confirmed the existence of proximity between manufacturing sectors verified through the productive and technological skills of workers. The neighborhood network was denser among sectors that have occupations with similar skills and between sectors of the same technological level. Proximity sectoral spillovers were found in the form of positive marginal effects on productivity and investment.