Desigualdades regionales, crecimiento económico y cambio estructural en Uruguay: 1983-2017

The main objective of this research is to inquire about the existence of inequalities between the different departments of Uruguay and their relationship with economic growth and structural change during the period 1983-2017. We aim to research three aspects: 1) the reduction of regional inequality in the long term, in particular, during the last process of economic growth in the country between 2004 and 2017; 2) economic growth at the national and the regional level and 3) the contribution of structural change to regional economic growth. The data sources are based on the recent regional GVA estimates in Rodríguez Miranda and Goinheix (2018) and official information available at the Observatorio Territorial Uruguay (OTU-OPP). Regional disparities are studied based on a series of static quantitative indicators (Theil, Gini and Herfindahl-Hirschman indexes) and dynamic quantitative indicators (convergence beta and convergence sigma). Additionally, the shift-share methodology is used to study the transformations in the productive structures of the departmental GVA. The results suggest that Uruguay experienced a reduction in the regional inequality throughout the period analyzed, although the dynamics of national growth do not have homogeneous impacts between the different regions. In particular, we found relevant differences between the two growth sub-periods, 1990-1998 and 2004-2017. On the other hand, a significant contribution of structural change to regional growth is not verified. The research ends with some conclusions and reflections on the main findings.