Growth Dynamics and Space in Brazil
Mariano Bosch Mossi
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Spain
Patricio Aroca
Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile
Ismael J. Fernández
Universitat de Valencia, Spain
Carlos Roberto Azzoni
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Abstract
This paper takes up some of the newly developed tools of spatial econometrics
to analyse the importance of geography in regional growth. This perspective is used to
characterise growth features in the Brazilian economy. Two strands of empirical
literature are brought together to draw the picture of geography as a factor affecting
differential economic performance. Firstly, spatial statistics tradition is implemented to
examine the spatial dependence of regional per capita income in Brazil for the last six
decades. Secondly, the role that geography may have on the determination of growth
paths is approached using intradistribution dynamics tools based on the construction of
Markov transition matrices and stochastic kernels, for discrete and continuous analysis
respectively.
1. Introduction
This paper takes up some of the newly developed tools of spatial econometrics
to analyse the importance of geography in regional growth studies (Rey and Montouri
1999, Lopez-Bazo, Vaya, Mora and Surinach 1999, Quah 1996 and 1997b and Rey
1999). This perspective is used to characterise growth features in the Brazilian
economy. Two strands of empirical literature are brought together to draw the picture of
geography as a factor affecting differential economic performance. Firstly, spatial
statistics tradition is implemented to examine the spatial dependence of regional per
capita income in Brazil for the last six decades. Secondly, the role that geography may
have on the determination of growth paths is approached using intradistribution
dynamics tools based on the construction of Markov transition matrices and stochastic
kernels, for discrete and continuous analysis respectively.
Traditional empirical growth analysis has developed a number of techniques to
discuss the existence or non-existence of beta and sigma convergence1. Cross sectional
and panel data regressions, unit roots and cointegration procedures have been some of
the most popular ways of testing for convergence. Nonetheless, most of this literature
considers the studied economies in isolation, independently of their locations and links
with other economic units. Despite of the fact that theoretical mechanisms that are said
to drive regional convergence, such as technological diffusion, factor mobility and
transfers of payments, have explicit geographical components, the role of spatial effects
in regional studies has been widely ignored (Rey and Montouri 1999). Recently, several
works have been developed to put forward the idea that using spatially located data,
1
For excellent summaries of the different theories and empirical tools see Barro and Sala i Martin (1995)
and Durlauf and Quah (1997a).
such as the income per capita of regions or nations, may generate a problem in
estimating traditional econometric models to test for convergence. Fingleton (1999)
proves that significant spatial dependence and heterogeneity are present in a sample of
European regions, what weakens the evidence for convergence. He argues that the vast
majority of studies, which have successfully found evidence for convergence, have
failed to model for this and, therefore, their results may be misleading. Other studies
support this idea, such as Lopez-Bazo, Vaya, Mora and Surinach (LVMS, 1999), that
report evidence of spatial patterns in the traditional studies of European regional
convergence. Más, Maudos, Pérez (1995) show how Spanish regional output is
explained, to some extent, by the accumulation of public capital in neighbouring
regions, once private capital and labour contributions are taken into account in the
estimation of a regional production function.
Why is space relevant to economic analysis? The concept of space may be
important in several ways. Firstly, Sachs (1997) argues that physical geography itself is
a factor, in terms of distance from markets, topography, climate, soil quantity,
endemicity of disease, rainfall, and other geographical variables which might play a role
in determining factor productivity and, hence, the growth potential of an area. Secondly,
a whole new branch of theoretical models inserted in the “new geography economy”
framework have suggested that, under some particular circumstances (increasing
returns, labour mobility, pecuniary externalities), economic activity may agglomerate at
some locations, with the striking implication that two regions with similar
characteristics may end up developing totally different economic structures (Krugman
1991, Puga 1998). Thirdly, space may be understood in relative terms. Economic
growth of a region is bound to be affected by neighbouring economies. Spillovers are at
the heart of this perspective. Proximity to a prosperous area necessarily influences
economic performance as does being close to a deprived economic environment.
Benabou (1993) and Durlauf (1996) present important theoretical contributions on this
issue, pointing out that externalities arise as capital accumulation depends on the spatial
location of economic agents.
The main aim of this paper is to estimate how strongly regional per capita
income is concentrated in the Brazilian economy and to what extent spillovers are
operative. Section 2 introduces the Brazilian case and presents the data employed in the
calculations. Section 3 deals with the computation of spatial statistics indexes to
measure spatial dependence. Section 4 opens up issues regarding dynamic behaviour
from both a discrete and a continuous perspective. Section 5 concludes the paper.
2. Data on Brazilian regional inequality
Brazil is well known for its income inequality, both personal and regional (Baer,
1995, Willumsen and Fonseca, 1996). The richest state presents a per capita income
level 7 times higher than the poorest state. Over time the situation has not changed
noticeably. In the 70´s and early 80´s regional inequality seemed to diminish, but since
then this process has come to an end or even reversed (Diniz, 1994; Zini, 1996, Azzoni,
2001, Azzoni and Santos, 2000, Azzoni et all, 2000). In 1997, even after controlling for
education and other personal characteristics, as well as for job conditions, labour
income inequality among the 11 metropolitan areas of the country was still impressive.
Controlling for differing cost of living levels does not significantly change this
conclusion. Moreover, regional labour income inequality has been quite stable in the
80´s and 90´s, regardless of extreme variations in inflation rates, in national GDP
growth rates and in wage policy in the country (Azzoni and Santos, 2000).
In this paper we deal with yearly per capita income figures for the 20 states of
the Brazilian federation in the period 1939-1998 (years 1940-46 are missing). Since
some states were separated over time, we work with the 20 states situation of 1939 and
not with the present 27 states2. For more details on the data, see Azzoni (1997)
3. Spatial Statistics perspective
The spatial statistics literature has made available a number of methods and
indicators to capture geographical interlinks (Anselin, 1988, 1995; Griffitth, 1996). Two
main approaches can be taken to detect spatial dependence. The first stems from the
need to derive a measure of overall spatial dependence of a determined variable within a
set of spatially located units, as in our case, per capita income of states within a country.
The second analyses the correlation between the spatial dependence index and the
standard deviation of regional per capita income over time.
The spatial dependence measure is provided by a global statistic such as Moran
I3, that can be represented by expression (1)
I=
n
2
wij zi z j / å zi
åå
(1)
S i j
i
where n is the number of regions; wij are the elements of a binary contiguity
matrix W(nxn), taking the value 1 if regions i and j share a common border and 0 if they
do not; S is the sum of all the elements of W; and zi and zj are normalised vectors of the
log of per capita income of each state. The Moran I is distributed between 1 and -1.
2
Amazonas = Acre+Amazonas+Roraima+Rondonia; Mato Grosso=Mato Grosso+Mato Grosso do Sul;
Pará = Pará+Amapá; Goiás=Goiás+Tocantins. The Federal District (Brasília) was established in the early
60´s and received gradually government employees from other regions in a pace determined by political
interests. Since this does not reflect economic reasons, the area was not included in the study.
3
Geary C family statistics have been computed showing very similar results
Values around 1 represent strong and positive spatial dependence (clustering of similar
values), whereas values around -1 show negative spatial correlation (clustering of
different values).
Figure 1 reports the evolution of Moran I and of the standard deviation of per
capita income of Brazilian states. Several facts are worth mentioning. First of all, since
the values are always over .4, there is strong evidence of a positive spatial dependence
among Brazilian states. This means that the rich (poor) states have a propensity to be
close to other rich (poor) states. This situation appears to be quite stable, with an
upward shift in the late 80s and in the 90s.
Secondly, there seems to be a certain amount of correlation between the spatial
dependence index and the standard deviation of regional per capita income over time.
Rey and Montouri (1999) argue that this co-movement may reflect a dynamic
characteristic of regional clustering and two possible explanations may support this fact.
On the one hand, an increase in spatial dependence could be due to the regions in each
cluster becoming more similar. On the other hand, it could also be due to newly formed
clusters emerging during a period of increasing income dispersion.
As far as detecting local patterns of spatial association to further explore the
spatial aspects of the data, it is important to know not only if the overall regional
income of a country is concentrated, but also to identify in which specific states that
concentration is stronger and whether those states concentrate high or low values of the
variable analysed. Anselin (1995) points out that the degree of spatial association, as a
result of the use of global statistics (like the global Moran statistic defined above),
ignores the potential instability of local units in the overall sample. New techniques
have recently been suggested to treat this kind of instability and to try to recover the
rich amount of information it provides (Getis and Ord 1992, Openshaw, Brundson and
Chalton 1991, Openshaw, Cross and Charlton 1990 and Anselin 1993, 1995). We focus
on the derivation of local indicators of spatial association (LISA), developed by Anselin
(1995), and the interpretation of the Moran Scatterplot (Anselin 1993).
Following Anselin (1995), two properties of LISA, which will condition its
interpretation, may be described: a) the LISA for each observation gives an indication of
the extent of significant spatial clustering of similar values around that observation,
which means that the local indicator Li should be such that it is possible to infer the
statistical significance of the pattern of spatial association at location i; b) the sum of
LISA's for all observations is proportional to a global indicator of spatial association.
These two properties are expressed in equation 2,
Pr( Li > d i ) £ a i
å Li = lL
(2)
i
where di is a critical value, ai is the significance level, l is the scale factor, and L
is the global indicator of spatial association. The Local Moran and its correspondence to
the global statistic are defined as follows
n
2
z i å wij z j / å z i
S
i
i
l=S
Iu =
(3)
A first interpretation of LISA as an indicator of local spatial clustering may be
obtained by using it as the basis for a test on the null hypothesis of no local spatial
association. These local clusters may be identified as the observations for which LISA
is significant, based on equation (2). However, LISA distributions are usually unknown.
Anselin (1995) suggests a method to generate an empirical distribution for LISA,
consisting in the conditional randomisation of the vector zj. It is conditional in the sense
that zi remains fixed. The reasoning behind the randomisation procedure lies in the need
to assess the statistical significance of the linkage of one state to its neighbours. The
generation of the state's i LISA distribution is inferred by the permutation of the
neighbours that surround state i (obviously, state i is not used in the permutation). This
empirical distribution provides the basis for a statement on the extremeness of the
observed LISA. Those values of the empirical distribution that leave a/2 of probability
on both sides of the derived distribution will set the borderline to assess the significance
of the local statistics.
The second interpretation of LISA is the detection of local instability and
outliers. Given that the local statistics keep a proportional relation to the global statistic
(equation 3), it is possible to find out which observation has a more relevant
contribution to the global statistic. In our case, this represents the identification of states
whose income clustering is above expectation under a spatially randomly distributed per
capita income.
Some extra help in the interpretation of the local statistics is provided by the
Moran scatterplot, which is the graphical complement of LISA to visualise local
instability. It plots the values of Wzj on zi, where W is the row-standardised4 first order
contiguity matrix and zi are the standardised values of the analysed variable. In the
present context, we would plot the standardised log of per capita income of a state
against its spatial lag (also standardised), which is its neighbours’ weighted average of
the log of income per capita. The Moran scatterplot divides the space in four areas,
which correspond to the four types of possible local spatial association between a state a
its neighbours; quadrant I: high-income states with high-income neighbours; quadrant
II: low-income states surrounded by high-income neighbours; quadrant III: low-income
4
In the row standardised matrix the columns sum to 1
states surrounded by low-income neighbours; and, finally, quadrant IV: states with
high-income with low-income neighbours (Rey and Montouri 1999). States located in
quadrants I and III represent the association of similar values (positive spatial
correlation) whereas quadrants II and IV show the association of opposite values
(negative spatial correlation). The concentration of states in quadrants I and III is
expected in a scenario where rich and poor states cluster separately, generating
differentiated areas of high and low-income. If states were located randomly around the
origin, occupying indifferently the four quadrants, no pattern of spatial dependence
would arise. Nevertheless, instabilities could still be found for individual observations.
Previous work on Brazilian regional income inequality indicates that periods of
convergence and divergence are intercalated (Azzoni, 2001). In order to take this into
account, we compute decade per capita income averages for each state and construct
scatterplots for each decade and for the year 1939. The results are shown in figures 2 to
7. The first relevant phenomenon is the confirmation of the dominance of positive
spatial association. In terms of the Moran scatterplot, this means that states are mainly
located in quadrants I and III, and this situation has been exacerbated to the extreme in
the last decade (Figure 7), where all the states are in quadrants I and III. Although
periods of convergence have occurred during the period, it seems that the long-run
situation is characterised by an income polarisation with strong spatial influence.
Secondly, a preliminary identification of cluster composition is feasible from
these figures. Over time there is a persistent presence of Northeastern states in quadrant
III, which could be considered a symptom of a low-income cluster in that part of the
country. Southeastern and Southern states populate quadrant I conforming a highincome cluster. Finally, another important issue is whether the growth paths over an
almost sixty year period have been, in a way, partially determined by geographical
links. Although this issue will be dealt with more extensively in next section, some
insights may be provided. Take for instance the vertical line formed by the states MG,
ES, GO and PE in Figure 2. This means that in 1939 these four states shared the same
income per capita level. This hypothetical line has rotated clockwise to leave states MG
and ES in quadrant I and deepen state PE into quadrant III. In other words, states with
fairly similar initial conditions have performed differently due to their regional spatial
context.
In order to further explore the existence and composition of clusters, we have
also calculated yearly Local Moran indicators. Table 1 reports the time period and the
specific states for which the indicator is statistically significant and the quadrant in
which the states were located at that point in time. Two important aspects are
highlighted in Table 1. First of all, the significant observations are concentrated in
quadrants I and III. This is the natural reflection of the previously found pattern of
global positive association and of the evidence of the Moran scatterplots. Secondly, the
two previously identified clusters were significant for most of the years, indicating their
persistence throughout the period. In the Northeast region, the states PI, CE, RN, PB,
PE and BA constitute the low-income cluster, whereas in the Southeast region, the
states RJ, SP, PR and MG form the high-income cluster. The previously mentioned
history about the evolution of PE and MG can also be verified. PE originally stays
unclustered up to 1976, when it clusters in the low-income area and remains clustered
until the end of the period. MG, in the high-income area, develops similar behaviour.
We can, therefore, suggest that the stability (with a slight upward trend) of the
global indicator for spatial association is due, mainly, to the strengthening of these two
regional clusters. These clusters are permanent and have been able to attract to their
influence peripheral states that were originally unclustered.
4. Dynamics
Implementation of the spatial statistics tools has allowed us to identify global
and local patterns of spatial association in a regional economic growth context. It is
possible to trace the evolution of the cluster composition and their strength by observing
them at different static points in time. The analytical framework to deal with transitional
dynamics developed by Quah (1993a) is employed to investigate whether regional
clustering has influenced income dynamics. Following Quah, let Ft denote the
distribution of income per capita across states at time t. We can define the law of motion
Ft+1 =M*Ft
(4)
where M maps one distribution into another, and consequently contains
information of the flow from Ft to Ft+1. The element M quantifies the mobility or
persistency from one period to another.
An easy and common way to approach the model is to discretise distribution Ft
into a set of possible values of income per capita relative to the country's mean. An
arbitrary number of k possible classes may be defined. The derivation of matrix M is
now straightforward as we can compute which states transit from one interval to
another. The division in k classes returns a Markov kxk transition matrix, where the
element (i,j) entry is the probability for the state in class i to transit to class j. The main
diagonal of this matrix denotes persistence, as it represents the probability for a state to
remain in its original class.
There are two important issues here. Firstly, there is no rule of thumb to set the
intervals. Quah (1997a) suggests that they are selected so that the k classes host similar
number of pairs of observation-years in each row, and this would return what is known
as the uniformly defined matrix. We have followed this approach defining five income
class intervals. Secondly, the choice of the time interval may affect the probabilities.
Intuitively, the longer the time interval, the higher the probability to move from one
income class to another.
Tables 2a and 2b show income transition matrices for one and ten year transition
periods respectively. Some insights may be highlighted from these results. First of all,
persistence seems to be much higher in the extremes (classes one and five) than in the
middle. This means that states with income per capita distanced from the mean tend to
remain in that situation, foremost in class five, where 95% and 88% are the probabilities
of remaining in the club of the rich states, depending on the transition period
considered5. Secondly, a greater mobility is found in the middle of the distribution.
Most of the transitions are concentrated in classes two, three, and four, which are those
around the average. Around 35% of the states in class two manage to ascend to the third
class in a ten year time period, whereas 14% are dropped into the first class. Despite the
high degree of persistency in class three, almost 52% of the states do not transit in a ten
year time period, the other half of the sample moves towards higher or lower classes
(30% descend to lower levels and 18% ascend). In class four, persistence is around 69%
and there does not seem to be a special pattern of attraction upwards or downwards in
the distribution.
The relationship between income distribution and spatially conditioned income
distribution is reported in Table 3. A series of income relative to the neighbours’ income
is computed for every state and is the conditioning series. The matrix is, thus,
constructed with pre- and post- conditioned values. If the conditional series had no
explanatory power at all, one would expect the poor states to be poor relative to their
surroundings and the rich to be richer than the nearby states. Then, something similar to
an identity matrix would emerge. However, if poor states shared a border with similar
poor states, their relative income would not depart from the average of the cluster. The
mass of probabilities concentrated around classes three and four in the Neighbour
relative columns represents this situation. For instance, poor states were only poor
relative to their neighbours in 22% of the observations. As shown in Table 3, the matrix
is far from being an identity matrix and probabilities are mainly concentrated in classes
three and four, although states located in class five do reveal themselves richer than
their neighbours. It is important to mention that this is not strictly a transition matrix, as
it relates values for a given year and not their evolution over time.
However, several shortcomings of this approach are relevant. Mainly, this sort of
analysis does not allow us to answer questions like: why states within the same class
(similar income per capita) move in opposite directions? What made some states climb
positions towards higher income status whereas others were dragged to the bottom step
of the ladder? Rey (1999) proposes a decomposition of the traditional Markov transition
matrix (kxk) to provide some insights on these questions. This decomposition aims at
capturing the effects of regional context on the transition scheme. It consists of the
construction of a (k x k x k) transition matrix where the transitions between classes of
income are conditioned by the spatial lag of the initial period. If the regional context did
not matter at all, income transitions would not be affected by the consideration of
different spatial lags. In other words, the probability of moving to higher (lower) classes
of income should be the same, regardless of the average of the neighbour states’
income. This sort of conditioning is different from Quah´s space conditioning (Table 3),
which tried to answer the question of whether poor (rich) economies were poor (rich)
5
For the sake of brevity, from this point onwards comments on transition probabilities will make
reference to the ten-year transition period matrix, although the one-year matrices are also reported for
relative to their neighbours or not. This addresses the question of whether states’
transition in the income distribution is related to the spatial context in which states
develop.
Tables 4a and 4b show the calculations for the Brazilian states. Five matrices
have been obtained for each time period. Each matrix portrays the transition of one
specific initial class to an end class, depending on the initial spatial lag of the states. The
first matrix shows movements in the bottom extreme class of the sample (Poor). As
noted before, strong persistence is the main feature and the spatial lag of the states does
not seem to establish differentiated transitional behaviour. Initial poor states, with poor
neighbours, apparently transited more easily to higher classes than states with low and
middle class neighbours. On the other hand, states with upper and high-class neighbours
transited up to the fourth income class with a probability of 100%.
The results for the second, third, fourth and fifth classes are more revealing on
the influence that the regional context may have in the determination of the transitional
pattern. In general terms, states with wealthier surroundings tend to behave better, in the
sense that they have a greater chance to move upwards than downwards in the transition
matrix. For example, in class four the chances of reaching class five are higher for states
with high spatial lag (20% against 5% for states with lower spatial lag). The same
argument is valid in the analysis of downward transitions. Class five is a good example
of this. The rich states surrounded by states with similar income did not drop to the
immediate lower income class as often as states with poorer neighbours (9% vs. 22%).
Tables 5a and 5b summarise the results of this approach. These tables show how,
more generally, the existence of a dissimilar surrounding (poorer, same, richer) may
influence transition. The message is broadly the same, those states which enjoyed richer
neighbours had better chances of an upward transition than those states in a worse
comparison.
regional context. The probability of moving up in the scale if surrounded by richer
states is 30%, whereas it drops to 6% for “worse surrounded” states, regardless of their
initial situation.
Though strong evidence has been found to prove that proximity to richer
(poorer) zones may influence the growth of states, a great amount of arbitrariness is
present in the tools implemented. The results of the Markov transition matrices are
highly sensitive to the choice of class intervals and transition periods. Different sets of
these two variables are bound to return totally different results. Moreover, the
construction of a kxkxk space conditioned transition matrix brings additional
arbitrariness into the analysis when spatial lag intervals are introduced. In fact, when
calculating the spatially conditioned transition probabilities we found that in some cases
only few observations are available, which makes inference unreliable. This is the case,
for instance, of poor states with upper and high spatial lag, where only 3 observations
exist.
Quah (1997a) constructs stochastic kernels and contour plots as tools to
overcome some of the problems with the application of Markov transition matrices,
avoiding the need for discretisation. Stochastic Kernels are the three-dimensional
visualisation of a transition probability matrix, where no discretisation has been allowed
and class intervals are now transformed into a data continuum6. Additional information
is presented in the form of contour plots, which are used for better interpretation of the
kernels in a two dimensional environment, where the lines on the plot connect points at
the same height on the kernel.
Figure 9 is the counterpart of Table 2a, where class transitions are considered
unconditionally to study the main characteristics of regional per capita income
dynamics within a ten-year transition period. As previously denoted, persistence has
been the key feature in this transition process involving the mass of probability
concentrated in the diagonal. However, some mobility has still taken place, as the
transition matrices indicate.
Figure 10 plots the income per capita of the Brazilian states relative to Brazil
versus the average of the neighbouring state’s income. Spatial concentration of the
variable would involve the mass of probabilities gathering around 1 in the Neighbour
relative axis. This means that states share with their neighbours similar income per
capita, regardless of their situation relative to the country. This is precisely what we can
deduce from Figure 10, except for very high-income states.
Finally Figures 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 analyse separately the initial income
classes and study their transition conditioned by their spatial lag, this time in a
continuum framework. The results are quite consistent with the evidence previously
found in the analysis of the Markov transition matrices, achieving a reduction in some
of the arbitrariness7. These figures have to be examined in a slightly different way than
the previous ones. Each pair of kernels and contour plots take one of the five sets of
income class, therefore, all the inference will make reference to the states that originally
belonged to that class at any point of time. The y-axis represents the standardised spatial
lag and the x-axis the end income situation ten years after they entered in the original
class. If no regional context influence was to be found there would be a concentration of
probability in a straight line at some point of the x-axis, where all states had arrived,
regardless of their spatial lag. If neighbourhood had some sort of conditioning effect,
probability would tend to be attracted to the bottom left corner (negative influence of a
6
Kernels estimates have been calculated nonparametrically, using a Gaussian Kernel with bandwidth set
following Silverman (1986). Quah’s Tsrf econometric shell was used. For more details on the
construction and calculation of the kernels see Quah (1997b)
7
Some degree of arbitrariness is still present in the choice of income transition intervals.
bad context) and the upper right corner (positive influence of a good context) in the
contour plot.
Class one (Figure 11) presents no traces of regional context influencing a tenyear transition. If any influence is to be noted, it seems that the odds favour states with a
worse spatial lag. This result clears up some of the ambiguities found in the transition
matrix characterising the first class (table 4a).
Dynamics occurring in class two seem to reflect our intuition about the way
states’ growth patterns are connected to territorial surroundings. Although persistence
is a feature to highlight, it is also true that the probabilities of transition are positively
correlated to the initial spatial lag.
The third and fourth classes (Figures 12 and 13), which include states ranging
from middle to upper income classes, show very interesting shapes. Two plateaus
emerge from the kernels, indicating that the direction of the transition has been sensitive
to regional context. This is especially remarkable in class four, where a spatial lag above
1.2 raises significantly the chances of reaching the high-income plateau, and states with
spatial lags below 1 are more likely to be trapped in the low-income plateau.
Finally, the richer states (Figure 15) confirm the high persistence detected in the
Markov transition matrices and clarify that the possible loss of income position has been
suffered by states lacking a relatively wealthy context.
This analysis complements and sometimes unveils dynamic features rather
difficult to extract from the use of the transition matrices, where reliable inference is
constrained by the correct choice of intervals and transition periods.
It is obvious that transitions are not fully explained by regional context, which
would mean the emergence of a picture similar to Figure 9, where the transitions of
initially similar states to higher (lower) classes would have been achieved by those with
better (worse) spatial lag. However, it seem that regional context can be a factor to
consider when trying to reveal the factors underlying regional convergence.
5. Conclusions
This paper has shown how the evolution of regional income inequality in Brazil
has followed a spatial dimension. Strong evidence of spatial clustering in Brazil has
been found. Two clusters, a low-income one in the Northeast and a high-income one in
the Southeast, have been revealed. These clusters seem to have become stronger over
time and states initially unclustered have, slowly, joined the existing clusters.
We have also proved that the growth paths of the Brazilian states have been,
partially, determined by their environment. Those states with wealthier neighbours had
greater chances of prospering.
It seems feasible that spatial connection may help regional interaction. However,
the way in which capital accumulation influences interlinked regions may work
differently. Interindustrial links, migration, trade flows, human capital exchange may be
the channels that make space important.
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Figure 1: Moran I Vs. Sigma Convergence For Brazilian Regional Per Capita Income
(1939-1998).
MoranI
0.8
Std Dev
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
19
96
19
93
19
90
19
87
19
84
19
81
19
78
19
75
19
72
19
69
19
66
19
63
19
60
19
57
19
54
19
51
19
48
0
Figure 2: Moran Scatterplot For Brazilian States (1939).
2.50
2.00
State i neighbours' standarised per capita income
1.50
MG
SP
PR
SC
AM
MT
ES
1.00
RJ 0.50
RS
PA
0.00
AL
PI
PB
CE
MA
BA
SE
RN
GO
-0.50
-1.00
PE
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-2.50
-2.00
-1.50
-1.00
-0.50
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
State i standarised per capita income
▬ North u Centre- West n Northeast l Southeast p South
2.50
Figure 3 : Moran Scatterplot For Brazilian States (Average Values 1950-1959).
2.50
2.00
State i neighbours' standarised per capita income
1.50
SC
MG
ES
PR
SP
RJ
RS
MT
1.00
0.50
AM
0.00
AL
PI
PB
MA
CE
BA
SE
RN
PA
-0.50
GO
PE
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-2.50
-2.00
-1.50
-1.00
-0.50
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
State i standarised per capita income
▬ North u Centre- West n Northeast l Southeast p South
2.50
Figure 4 : Moran Scatterplot For Brazilian States (Average Values 1960-1969).
2.50
2.00
State i neighbours' standarised per capita income
1.50
1.00
SC PR
ES
RJ SP
MG
MT
0.50
RS
AM
0.00
AL
PB
BA
PI
MA
CE
SERN
PA
GO
-0.50
PE
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-2.50
-2.00
-1.50
-1.00
-0.50
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
State i standarised per capita income
▬ North u Centre- West n Northeast l Southeast p South
2.50
Figure 5 : Moran Scatterplot For Brazilian States (Average Values 1970-1979).
2.50
2.00
State i neighbours' standarised per capita income
1.50
PR
SC
MG
ES
RS
RJ
SP
1.00
0.50
MT
AM
AL PA
BA
SE
PI
MA
0.00
GO
-0.50
PB
CE
RN
PE
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-2.50
-2.00
-1.50
-1.00
-0.50
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
State i standarised per capita income
▬ North u Centre-West n Northeast l Southeast p South
2.50
Figure 6 : Moran Scatterplot For Brazilian States (Average Values 1980-1989).
2.50
2.00
State i neighbours' standarised per capita income
1.50
RS RJ
PR SC
1.00
SP
ES
MG
MT
0.50
0.00
AL
SE
BA
PA
PB
MA
PI
CE
AM
GO
-0.50
PE
RN
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-2.50
-2.00
-1.50
-1.00
-0.50
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
State i standarised per capita income
▬ North u Centre-West n Northeast l Southeast p South
2.50
Figure 7 : Moran Scatterplot For Brazilian States (Average Values 1990-1998).
2.50
2.00
State i neighbours' standarised per capita income
1.50
PR
SC
RS
RJ
SP
MG
MT
ES
1.00
0.50
AM
0.00
AL BA
MA
PI
SE
PA
GO
-0.50
PB
CE
PE
RN
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-2.50
-2.00
-1.50
-1.00
-0.50
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
State i standarised per capita income
▬ North u Centre-West n Northeast l Southeast p South
2.50
Table 1: Local Moran Significance 1939-1998
10%
I Quadrant
AM (N)
PA (N)
MA (NE)
PI (NE)
CE (NE)
RN (NE)
PB (NE)
PE (NE)
AL (NE)
SE (NE)
BA (NE)
54, 66-69, 74-81, 83, 85-98
MG (SE)
80, 83-86, 88
ES (SE)
47-84, 90-93, 95-98
RJ (SE)
39, 47-80, 85-98
SP (SE)
39, 47-55, 58-62, 74-75, 77, 80, 85-98
PR (S)
80-90, 93-95
SC (S)
RS (S)
39, 54, 58, 74-79
MT (CW)*
GO (CW)
III Quadrant
50
49-50, 78, 83-85, 87, 89
47-66, 69-72, 74-98
39, 47-48, 51-59, 61, 69- 83, 85-98
39, 53-54, 58, 69-80, 89, 82-96
39, 79-80, 85-98
76-98
39
39
39, 47-50, 52, 56, 60-63
47-50, 52, 57, 60, 81-84
Total
0
1
9
49
42
23
18
23
1
1
11
28
6
46
49
33
14
0
16
11
Global
39, 47-98
52
5%
I
III
Total
0
AM (N)
0
PA (N)
49, 83-84
3
MA (NE)
48-52, 56-63, 74, 78, 80, 82-98
33
PI (NE)
39, 51, 53-55, 57-58, 69-81, 83, 85-98
35
CE (NE)
39, 53, 58, 70-75, 79-80, 93-95
15
RN (NE)
85-90, 94-95
8
PB (NE)
79-80, 82-98
19
PE (NE)
0
AL (NE)
39
1
SE (NE)
39, 52, 61-63
5
BA (NE)
74, 76-80, 86-89, 91-98
18
MG (SE)
1
83
ES (SE)
48-57, 59, 64-72, 78, 81-83
24
RJ (SE)
39, 47-79, 90-98
43
SP (SE)
39, 47-50, 52-53, 55, 59, 75, 88, 90-98
20
PR (S)
81
1
SC (S)
0
RS (S)
39, 77, 79
4
MT (CW)*
47-49, 52, 60, 81-84
9
GO (CW)
39, 47-98
52
N=North, NE= Northeast, S=Southeast, S=South, CW=Centre-West
MT psents significant local indicators for years 81-82 where the region was in quadrant II
Global
Table 2a: 1 Year Unconditional Transition Matrix.
End
Number Class
Initial
Class
P
L
M
U
H
200
204
201
205
210
P
91%
8%
0%
0%
0%
L
9%
77%
14%
0%
0%
M
1%
14%
74%
12%
0%
U
0%
1%
12%
83%
5%
H
0%
0%
0%
5%
95%
Table 2b: Ten Years Unconditional Transition Matrix.
End
Number Class
Initial
Class
P
L
M
U
H
167
170
170
166
167
P
75%
14%
4%
2%
0%
L
18%
47%
26%
2%
0%
M
5%
35%
52%
11%
0%
U
2%
5%
16%
69%
12%
H
0%
0%
2%
14%
88%
Table 3: Static Space Conditioned Matrix.
Number Neighbour relative
P
L
M
Income Class
P
203 22% 32% 36%
L
207
0%
1% 50%
M
206
1% 11% 14%
U
210
0% 20% 48%
H
214
0%
0% 14%
U
11%
44%
55%
27%
36%
H
0%
3%
19%
4%
50%
First Income Class: Poor (P) 0-0.54 relative to the mean
Second Income Class: Low (L) 0.54-0.70 relative to the mean
Third Income Class: Medium (M) 0.70-0.92 relative to the mean
Fourth Income Class: Upper (U) 0.92-1.35 relative to the mean
Fifth Income Class: High (H) >1.35 relative to the mean.
Table 4a: Dynamic (One Year) Space
Conditioned Transition Matrix.
Table 4b: Dynamic (Ten Years) Space
Conditioned Transition Matrix.
NumberEnd Class
Spatial
P
L
Lag
P
36 86% 14%
L 146 93% 7%
M 15 80% 7%
U
2
50% 50%
H
1
0%
0%
M
U
0%
0%
0%
0%
13% 0%
0%
0%
0% 100%
H
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
L
P
L
M
U
H
28
91
81
4
0
14%
9%
5%
0%
0%
75%
80%
78%
25%
0%
11%
11%
16%
50%
0%
0%
0%
1%
25%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
M
P
L
M
U
H
25
42
96
25
13
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
8%
19%
17%
8%
0%
88%
76%
76%
64%
46%
4%
5%
7%
28%
54%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
U
P
L
M
U
H
0
6
12
67
120
0%
0%
0%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
67%
58%
7%
7%
0%
33%
42%
88%
87%
0%
0%
0%
3%
7%
H
P
L
M
U
H
0
0
0
38
172
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
11%
3%
0%
0%
0%
89%
97%
Initial
Class
P
Table 5a: One Year Space Conditioned
Transition Probabilities (Summary).
Poorer
Same
Richer
Number Down None Up
151 19% 77%
4%
462
8% 87%
5%
407
3% 84% 13%
Number End Class
Spatial
Lag
P
32 41% 41%
L
120 88% 12%
M
12 58% 25%
U
2 0%
0%
H
1 0%
0%
16% 3%
1%
0%
17% 0%
0% 100%
0% 100%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
L
P
L
M
U
H
17
76
73
4
0
12%
20%
8%
0%
0%
47%
57%
40%
0%
0%
41%
20%
47%
75%
0%
0%
4%
5%
25%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
M
P
L
M
U
H
25
36
71
25
13
0%
14%
1%
0%
0%
44%
33%
27%
12%
0%
52%
53%
61%
32%
38%
4%
0%
11%
40%
62%
0%
0%
0%
16%
0%
U
P
L
M
U
H
0
6
10
41
109
0%
17%
0%
7%
0%
0%
17%
10%
2%
1%
0%
17%
70%
12%
6%
0%
50%
20%
73%
73%
0%
0%
0%
5%
20%
H
P
L
M
U
H
0
0
0
37
130
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
22%
9%
0%
0%
0%
78%
91%
Initial
Class
P
Table 5a: Ten Years Space Conditioned
Transition Probabilities (Summary).
N
Poorer
Same
Richer
131
350
359
Down None Up
37% 56%
6%
16% 71% 13%
4% 65% 30%
Figure 9: Ten Year Unconditional Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
Class 3 conditioning
Class 4 conditioned
Figure 10: Static Space Conditioned Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
.
32
Figure 11: First Class (P) Space Conditioned Dynamics Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
Figure 12: Second Class (L) Space Conditioned Dynamics Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
33
Figure 13 Third Class (M) Space Conditioned Dynamics Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
Figure 14: Fourth Class (U) Space Conditioned Dynamics Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
34
Figure 15: Fifth Class (H) Space Conditioned Dynamics Stochastic Kernel And Contour Plot.
35