Moedas locais complementares como ativadoras da economia local?

Abstract

Complementary local currencies have gained new prominence since the 2008 financial crisis, especially in regions that suffer most from the consequences of this crise, generally places with a low level of socioeconomic development. This study focuses on the analysis of complementary local currencies as the local economy enablers, having as its main reference the Brazilian experience within community development banks (CDB). In addition, this study seek to obtain an overview of CDB and their physical convertible local currencies and identify the main factors that influenced the current situation of each initiative. As part of this thesis, quantitative methodological research was carried out, with an ex post facto descriptive strategy, which mapped the CDB that had physical convertible local currency and their situation at the time of the research. The result was that, of the 110 CDB identified with this profile, 32 (29%) remain in operation, 53 (48%) are closed, 2 (2%) have their activities in stand by and 23 (21%) remain in their current situation undefined, as it was not possible to confirm its situation with any source. Even so, based on qualitative research of an exploratory nature, it was established that, among the banks considered closed, the reasons for their closure are linked to the lack of financial resources, personnel and time, insecurity, change of management or lack of compliance of the agreement by the city hall, lack of support from the government, difficulty, incapacity or conflicts in the management of the bank, lack of political articulation or even not being accepted by the community. The success factors are related to existing or identified strong community leadership, a community organization already active in the region and strong territorial engagement work. We also analyze new developments in local currencies in their electronic version and linked to municipal government income transfer programs. It is concluded that local currencies can be activated in the local economy, depending mainly on the amount of resources transacted in this local currency.