ALGUMAS EXPERIÊNCIAS INTERNACIONAIS RECENTES DE POLÍTICAS DE DESENVOLVIMENTO REGIONAL

Abstract

This paper briefly summarizes the most recent theoretical trends on the interpretation of regional disparities and relies on two concrete examples of policies developed by regional agencies to identify the three major cornerstones of such policies: (i) generation of useful information to agents; (ii) promotion of cooperation among agents to benefit from synergies; and (iii) reduction of credit constraints. The various regional agencies tend to support differently these three policies, although they usually work with all these three instruments. Unfortunately, the recent changes in the Brazilian regional agencies did not rely on such policies, as happened with the two examples analyzed, which were the one of Sviluppo Italia and the Canadian Economic Development Agency. In Brazil, agencies have focused mainly and almost exclusively on the reduction of credit constraint.