Evolução da produtividade industrial brasileira e abertura comercial

Abstract

This article presents estimates of labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) growth for 16 sectors of Brazilian manufacturing industry for the period 1985/97. Besides, the paper investigates the impact of trade protection on evolution of Brazilian productivity. The study reaches the following conclusions: the productivity of Brazilian industry has been increasing since 1990 in rates without precedence in the previous years. In addition, the openness has exerced an important effect in this process. Barriers to trade affect negatively the productivity growth at industry level. The regressions reported here are robust to openness indicator and time period.