Abstract
The objective of this work is to capture possible changes in the insertion mode of regional economies in national value chains using comparative advantage indicators, developed by Béla Balassa and improved by Gérard Lafay, and intra-industry trade indicators developed by Herbert Grubel and Peter Lloyd and improved by Antonio Aquino. Based on inter-regional trade, disaggregated by productive sectors, two findings are extracted. The first is that in terms of aggregate value, industrial production continues to be highly concentrated. The second points to the sedimentation of a second inter-regional division of labor that follows the de-concentration process of industrial production that began in the 1970s. After this period, the participation of the less developed states in the national value chains are gradually reoriented toward the supply of semi-manufactured goods, of low technological intensity and intensive in manpower and raw materials. Thus, there are significantly important changes in the hierarchy of the insertion mode of the regional economies in the national value chains, only possible to be revealed through the availability of the Interstate Input-Output Matrices.
Keywords:
Regional Inequality; Spatial Concentration of Production; Economic Development