Desenvolvimento com base em recursos naturais: análise da economia do Estado do Maranhão 1990-2012

Abstract

The theme of the economic development process led by natural resources currently occupies significant space in academic and political debates about the future of Brazil. The goal of thisresearch is to investigate the structure and recent dynamics of Maranhão economy, with emphasis on the role of natural resources for the development of the state. Maranhão has considerable dependence on their level of economic activity linked to the behavior of prices of its key mining and agricultural commodities in the international market. The Maranhão production structure is characterized by marked relative share assigned to the intermediate goods industry and the large supply-oriented to serve the foreign market production and natural resources. In this context, this work aims to contribute to the debate of evolution, structural characterization and dynamics of Maranhão economy in the national context period in the 1970 to 2010, seeking to identify changes and continuities with emphasis on the period from 1990 to 2010. The work sheds light on the current reorientation observed not only in the state of Maranhão, but to understand the entire nationwide resulting in the strengthening of the Brazilian condition supplier of commodities to the detriment of the manufacturing industry.Finally, it seeks to situate this debate here in the broader context of the quest for understanding the reasons for the underdevelopment of the Northeast region and to identify possible gaps breaks needed to develop not only the Northeast over the whole country