Very little detail is known about how investments and industrial policy options exercised by the national and regional State within large economies such as Brazil and India are affecting industrial employment and regional socio-economic development. The TCLab “Employment and Regional Inequality (TERI)” project is a comparative analysis of technological and industrial policy choices and their impact on intersectoral and regional employment inequalities observed both in India and Brazil.

The TERI program contrasting Sao Paulo and Karnataka regions in Brazil and India, uses quantitative and qualitative techniques to study the nature of industrial change in the two regions, their political economy, and the employment, income, and health changes that they have sustained.

We investigate if and how investments in mid- and high-tech sectors - a variable perceived as important in explaining economic growth- might be related to socio- economic inequality and regional indicators. We study how the industrial policy- employment-inequality link might be influenced by institutions for education, training, and health. These include capturing through industrial sector analyses the changing role(s) of the State and pressures on public institutions in both countries. The outcomes of the project will determine if and under what conditions the approaches developed here can be utilized to study other country contexts.