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This policy brief summarizes a study by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and PUC-Rio on the economic impacts of hydropower plants (HPP) in Brazil. Analyzing 82 municipalities between 2002 and 2011, the research finds that while dam construction often provides short-term boosts to employment and revenue, these effects typically dissipate after five or six years and rarely transform the underlying structure of local economies.

This executive summary describes a study by the NAPC/CPI and BNDES evaluating the local economic impacts of hydroelectric power plants (UHEs) in Brazil. Analyzing 82 municipalities across 13 states where construction began between 2002 and 2011, the study finds that positive economic effects are generally short-term and vary significantly by location, suggesting that UHEs do not fundamentally transform local economies.