MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND STATE POVERTY RATE IN BRAZIL DURING 1981-2006

Abstract

Discussions on poverty always were present in the scope of the economic theory. However, papers that relate the poverty to the macroeconomic performance are relatively scarce, still more in the Brazilian literature, even being common sense the relevance of the economic activity for the determination of the condition of poverty. So, the present work will try to insert the discussion about the battle against poverty in the scope of the formulation and of the implementation of the macroeconomic policies considering the relations between the macroeconomic performance and the poverty rate. To investigate those relations, we will utilize panel data of information regarding the Brazilian states in the period of 1981 to 2006. As most important result, this work shows that only economic growth strategies are insufficient. Many structural aspects determine the relations between economic performance and welfare of population. Thus, besides that continuous, sustainable and balanced economic growth, is necessary to break the structures that, mainly in underdevelopment countries, induce to the known process of growth with income concentration.