INDUSTRIAL POLARIZATION AND DEPOLARIZATION IN BRAZIL AND IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Abstract

This paper intends to examine a hypothesis of reversion of industrial polarization in Brazil, since the beginning of the 70's. With the use of industrial gross domestic product, generated in different regions of the Country, including the main urban centers, a rising industrial concentration is found in São Paulo until 1968, when it reaches a maximum, and thereafter a decline up to the present. The depolarization also occurs in Rio Grande do Sul. The net loss of manufacturing plants located in Porto Alegre to the Metropolitan area's periphery and to the interior of the state occurs since the beginning of the 70's. The study concludes that depolarization is a natural market phenomenon, although fiscal incentives given at the periphery accelerate this process, making it precocious, as it seems the case in Rio Grande do Sul.