Relações entre abertura comercial, desigualdade e pobreza: uma análise espacial para os municípios brasileiros

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the effects of trade opening on income inequality and poverty incidence for Brazilian municipalities, from the spatial econometric perspective for the years 2000 and 2010. The analysis uses the panel data methodology in the estimates, using two main control variables, the trade flow (exports, imports and Gross Domestic Product-GDP) and the trade policy indicator (LIB), with the aim of exploring in different angles, the influence of trade opening on income inequality and poverty in Brazilian municipalities. In addition to inserting a spatial model of panel data, to observe the neighborhood effects that relate the dependent variables to the explanatory ones (GDP growth rate, the white population, schooling, informality and the agricultural sector). The database used was built from the Census microdata (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE) and the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC). The results indicated that the variables linked to the trade flow are strongly related to poverty reduction, and to a lesser extent to inequality, considering the direct and indirect spatial effects. When controlled by the LIB, trade cuts favored a greater proportion of the reduction in income inequality. However, there are also spatial effects linked to an increase in the incidence of poverty, by the trade policy indicator (LIB).