THE NORTH–SOUTH DIVIDE: REAL WAGES AND WELFARE IN BRAZIL DURING THE EARLY 20<sup>TH</sup>CENTURY

Pereira, Thales

doi:10.1017/s0212610919000132

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…12. Other estimates of GDP by the income side are found in Bértola, Willebald, Castelnovo & Reis (2006) and Bértola, Castelnovo, Rodríguez & Willebald (2009) for the 1872–1920 period, and in Pereira (2020) for 1920.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 87%

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

Reis

2023

ECON

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PurposeThe purpose is to market a reinterpretation of Brazilian economic history highlighting the importance of non-tradable goods to understand major historical developments such as the lack of industrialization in the mining boom; the rise and contribution of industries to development in the early 20th century; indexation as hyperinflation in the late 20th century; growth and cycles in the early 21st century.Design/methodology/approachSection 2 introduces analytical perspectives on the relationship between non-tradables, transport costs and external shocks. Section 3 presents a historical overview of the gold and coffee cycles in the Brazilian economy, which highlights the crucial role played by transport costs in the genesis of industrialization. Thus, in a more precise way, industrialization was not an import substitution process but the substitution of non-tradables by the domestic tradable manufactures.FindingsSection 4 shows that Brazilian statistical records and historiography disregard this characterization and, to that extent, underestimate economic growth in the primary export phase (1872–1920) and overestimate growth rates in the industrialization period (1920–1940). Section 5 shifts to the end of the 20th century to analyze the relationship between non-tradables, indexation and hyperinflation. Section 6 concludes with a brief discussion of the role played by the terms of trade and non-tradables in the unfolding of the 2014 economic crisis.Originality/valueDistance from international markets and a continental geographic size made transport costs in Brazil historically prohibitive: the relevance of non-tradables in the Brazilian economic history. While the theme is not new, it seldom received proper attention in the historiography.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 87%

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

Reis

2023

ECON

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“…In fact, it was common for a single household to comprise ten or even more people, often including outside peons who thus found a roof for the harvest season. Nevertheless, previous studies dealt with this type of problem by focusing on the welfare ratio from one salary (Zamberlan 2019). In sum, the BBB methodology is not a suitable method to deflate prices in rural Central Chile until we have more data on prices, budgets, nutrient intake and consumption patterns.…”

Section: Agricultural Labourers’ Wages and Living Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Workers’ Standard of Living During Central Chile's Agrarian Expansion, 1870-1930

et al. 2021

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The purpose of this paper is to determine trends in the wages and living standards of male agricultural labourers in Central Chile during the agrarian expansion, c. 1870-1930. We found that nominal wages increased eightfold; this is relevant because wage labour became the main rural labour regime in this period. Nominal wages rose steadily from the early 1870s until 1910, and with significant fluctuations thereafter, before plummeting with the Great Depression. Real wages also increased, but only slightly. Furthermore, during certain short periods, agricultural labourers' real wages were similar to or higher than those of low-skilled urban workers. However, the persistent gap between agricultural and non-agricultural wages was one of the causal factors of the outmigration of rural workers.

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“…Azzoni and Haddad (2018) provides a short summary of this literature. Reis (2014) and Bucciferro and Ferreira de Souza (2020) offer a long-term perspective on income inequality between the states, ECON measuring it from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 21st-century; Zamberlan Pereira (2020) takes into account local prices to measure differences in real wages in the early 20th century and Azzoni (2001) constructs a measure to evaluate the long-run income convergence between the states. Silveira Neto and Azzoni (2011) evaluate the role of nonspatial policies in income convergence between 1995 and 2006.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional income inequality in Brazil: state-level Distributional National Accounts

Bhering

2024

ECON

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PurposeBrazil’s regional inequality is an important topic due to the large and persistent differences in development between states and the high levels of inequality in the country. These variations in development can potentially render survey data inaccurate since the significance of capital income varies across the states. Besides, previous studies incorporating tax and national accounts data globally have mainly focused on measuring the income distribution at the country-level. This approach can limit the understanding of inequality, especially when considering large countries such as Brazil.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used to construct these estimates follows the guidelines of the Distributional National Accounts, whose core goal is to provide income distribution measures consistent with macroeconomic aggregates and harmonized across countries and time. The procedure has three main steps: first, it corrects the survey’s underrepresentation of top incomes using tax data. Then, it accounts for national income items not included in the survey or tax data, such as imputed rents and undistributed profits. Finally, it ensures that all components match the national income.FindingsCompared to survey-based estimations, the results reveal a new angle on the state-level inequality. This study indicates that Amazonas, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have a more concentrated income distribution. The top 1\% of earners in these states receives around 28\% of total pre-tax income, while the top 10\% receive nearly 60\%. On the other end, Amapá (AP), Acre (AC), Rondônia (RO) and Santa Catarina (SC) are the states where the income distribution is less concentrated. There were no significant changes in the income distribution across the states during the period analyzed.Originality/valueThis study combines survey, tax and national accounts data to construct new estimates of Brazil’s state-level income distribution from 2006 to 2019. Previous results only considered income captured in surveys, which usually misses a significant part of capital incomes. This limitation may bias comparisons as capital income has different importance across the states. The new estimates represent the income of top groups more accurately, account for the entire national income and enable to compare regional inequality levels consistently with other countries.

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THE NORTH–SOUTH DIVIDE: REAL WAGES AND WELFARE IN BRAZIL DURING THE EARLY 20^THCENTURY

Cited by 14 publications

References 38 publications

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

Agricultural Workers’ Standard of Living During Central Chile's Agrarian Expansion, 1870-1930

Regional income inequality in Brazil: state-level Distributional National Accounts

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THE NORTH–SOUTH DIVIDE: REAL WAGES AND WELFARE IN BRAZIL DURING THE EARLY 20THCENTURY

Cited by 14 publications

References 38 publications

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

Agricultural Workers’ Standard of Living During Central Chile's Agrarian Expansion, 1870-1930

Regional income inequality in Brazil: state-level Distributional National Accounts

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Product

Resources

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THE NORTH–SOUTH DIVIDE: REAL WAGES AND WELFARE IN BRAZIL DURING THE EARLY 20^THCENTURY