CLUSTERS OF PRODUCTIVE SOPHISTICATION FROM THE "LOG T" REGRESSION: THE CASE OF MESOREGIONAL AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY IN THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

The local productive structures path may be determinant for the economic development of a given region. Transported to the specific reality of agricultural production, this debate takes an even more prominent character in view of the importance of labor productivity as a matter of survival of agricultural businesses. Thus, the successive transition to activities with increasing levels of productivity represents feasible means of overcoming economic backwardness. In this sense, this paper proposes the investigation of the productive sophistication dynamics through the EXPY measure for each mesoregion of the state of Minas Gerais. Considering the territorial concentration of agricultural exports in Minas Gerais and the real average per capita income of the rural worker, this indicator assumes that regions that concentrate the production of a given commodity and, simultaneously, have higher real per capita incomes are structurally more sophisticated. The results obtained point to the formation of three clusters of convergence of the level of sophistication of agricultural exports composed, for the most part, by bordering mesoregions.