ABSTRACT
Market integration analysis is important for the economic development of a country. In the context of this relevance and of the role played by raw honey in the Brazilian economy, its fundamental to understand how the integration of this product takes place in the main Brazilian export States. In this sense, the study aimed at investigating the spatial integration process among the main Brazilian raw honey export markets: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Piauí, Ceará and São Paulo. Monthly data obtained by means of the database of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Commerce (MDIC) for the period from January 2002 to July 2011 was used. In order to investigate the relationships among these markets, the methods employed in time series, such as unit root and Johansen cointegration tests, analysis of the vector model of error correction and exogeneity test were used. The results indicated the presence of cointegration among the Brazilian raw honey export markets. However, based on the test about the long-run relationship coefficient, it was observed that the Law of One Price was not completely confirmed, as the null hypothesis of perfect spatial integration among these markets was rejected. In addition, the testing of weak exogeneity indicates that the Rio Grande do Suls raw honey market acts like a central market in the formation of prices.
Market integration; raw honey; Law of One Price; Time series