Regional and sectoral performance of brazilian labour productivity in the period 2004-2014

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the behaviour of Brazilian labour productivity (2004-2014) and its impact on growth, seeking which regions and sectors contributed most to the low aggregate productivity. The trend of productivity growth is positive, and the worked hour had a smaller growth than the per person employed, indicating an increase in the workday. The results indicate that there was a growth in agricultural productivity, a fall in industry, and stagnation in services. The regions with the best performance were the North, Northeast and Center-West. The sectoral productivity performance in the country was found to be mainly due to intrasectoral productivity, so the low growth was due to the lack of growth within sectors, except in the North, where structural change significantly contributed to the good regional performance. Yet the econometric estimates showed that only in services the elasticity of productivity was higher than that of physical capital.