Roots of Brazilian relative economic backwardness / Alexandre Rands Barros.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barros, Alexandre Rands, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development--Brazil.

Economic development.

Brazil--Economic conditions.

Brazil.

Economic conditions.

Economic history.

Physical Description:

xi, 280 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London, United Kingdom : Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier, [2016]

Summary:

Roots of Brazilian Relative Economic Backwardness explains Brazil's development level in light of modern theories about economic growth and international economics. It focuses on both proximate and fundamental causes of Brazil's slow development, turning currently dominant hypotheses upside down. To support its arguments, the book presents extensive statistical analysis of Brazilian long-term development, with some new series on per capita GDP, population ethnical composition, and human capital stock, among others. It is an important resource in the ongoing debate about the causes of underdevelopment in Latin American economies. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Structure of the Arguments of the Book 2

1.3 Summary of the Major Hypotheses 4

1.3.1 The Proximate Cause of Brazilian Relative Backwardness 5

1.3.2 The Ultimate Cause of Brazilian Relative Backwardness 6

1.4 Additional Comments on Assumptions and Analytical Method 7

2 Historical Origins of Brazilian Relative Backwardness

2.1 Introduction 9

2.2 Long-Term Data on Per Capita GDP Growth: First Exercise 10

2.3 Alternative Decomposition of the Historical Sources of Relative Backwardness 20

2.4 Conclusions 26

3 A Simple Model of World Equilibrium With International Trade and No Restriction on Factor Mobility

3.1 Introduction 29

3.2 Model Setup in the World Economy With Many Goods and Many Factors of Production 30

3.2.1 Demand for Each Good in the Economy 31

3.2.2 Production of Each Good in the World Economy 33

3.3 General Equilibrium 35

3.4 Decomposing the World Into Countries 38

3.5 Conclusions 41

4 Some Empirical Evidence on the Sources of Brazilian Current Relative Backwardness

4.1 Introduction 43

4.2 Some Basic Development Arithmetic 44

4.3 Human Capital Availability Differences 45

4.4 Physical Capital Availability Differences 48

4.5 Natural Resources 49

4.6 Exploring Further the Potential Role of the Many Factors of Production in Brazilian Relative Backwardness 52

4.6.1 Estimating Variables and Parameters of the Relevant Production Functions 52

4.6.2 Method for Decomposition of Per Capita GDP Differences 55

4.6.3 Figures Comparing Brazil to the Benchmark Countries 58

4.7 Conclusions 61

Appendix 63

5 Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital and Its Role in Physical Capital Accumulation

5.1 Introduction 67

5.2 Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital 69

5.3 Model Unveiling the Logic of Rational Intergenerational Human Capital Transmission 70

5.4 Additional Comments 73

5.5 Note on Free Capital Mobility 75

5.6 Some Consequences for Brazilian Relative Backwardness 76

5.7 Conclusions 82

6 Migration Profile and Human Capital Building in Brazil and the United States in the 19th Century

6.1 Introduction 86

6.2 European Mass Migration in the 19th Century 88

6.3 Necessary Assumptions to Build Surrogated Per Capita GDP 89

6.3.1 Human Capital of Immigrants Is Similar to That of the Population in Their Country of Origin 90

6.3.2 Families Tend to Reproduce Their Human Capital in Their Offspring 91

6.3.3 Immigrant Communities Generated a Growth Rate of Their Populations Equal to the Average Growth Rate of the Population of the Receptor Country 92

6.3.4 Free Mobility of Population Among Countries, and Costs of Migration Were Not Enough to Generate Significant Differences in Standard of Living of a Migrant to the Excolonies Given Personal Productive Attributes 93

6.3.5 Perfect Capital Mobility Among Countries 94

6.4 Data and Its Origins 95

6.5 Simple Exercise Comparing American and Brazilian Per Capita GDP 100

6.5.1 Migration and Per Capita GDP 102

6.5.2 Potential Role of Embodied Human Capital in Development Differences in 1900 104

6.5.3 Role of Embodied Human Capital in the Rise of Disparity Over the 19th Century 106

6.6 Conclusions and Additional Comments 108

7 Genesis of Brazilian Human Capital: From Colony to the 19th Century

7.1 Introduction 111

7.2 Some Comments on the Nature of Human Capital 112

7.3 Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans in the Brazilian Setup 115

7.4 Evolution to the Early 19th Century 123

7.5 Simulated Structure of Brazilian Society in the Early 19th Century 126

7.5.1 Relative Income of Ethnic Groups 134

7.6 Conclusions and Additional Comments 137

8 Relative Declining in the 19th Century

8.1 Introduction 139

8.2 Long-Term Trend of Brazilian Human Capital Availability in the 19th Century 140

8.2.1 Estimating Brazilian Per Capita GDP in the 19th Century 140

8.2.2 Estimation of Human Capital in Brazil in the 19th Century 141

8.2.3 Estimation of Human Capital in Other European Countries 143

8.3 Generated Human Capital Series 144

8.4 Additional Comments on Human Capital Building in Europe in the 19th Century 146

8.5 Model Interpretation of the Widening Educational Gap in the 19th Century 149

8.6 Conclusions 150

9 Stabilization of Relative Backwardness

9.1 Introduction 151

9.2 Long-Term Dynamics of Backwardness 153

9.3 Explaining the Stabilization of Relative Backwardness 156

9.4 Additional Comments 160

9.5 Role of Immigration to Halt the Relative Decline 162

9.6 Conclusions and Additional Comments 165

10 Alternative Explanations for Brazilian Relative Backwardness

10.1 Introduction 169

10.2 General Framework to Understand Alternative Views Explaining Brazilian Relative Backwardness 170

10.3 Latin American Structuralist Hypothesis 172

10.4 Dependency Theory 176

10.5 New Institutionalists 178

10.5.1 Differences in Total Factor Productivity 181

10.5.2 Differences in Equilibrium Return to Capital 181

10.5.3 Differences in Equilibrium Return to Human Capital 182

10.5.4 Differences in Equilibrium Return to Natural Resources 182

10.5.5 Disparities Emerging From Productive Structural Differences 183

10.5.6 Disparities Emerging From Social Determination of the Labor Participation Rate 183

10.5.7 Dynamics and Static Comparisons 184

10.5.8 Determinants of Institutions 185

10.5.9 Faoro's Institutional Hypothesis Explaining Brazilian Backwardness 186

10.6 Conclusions and Additional Comments 187

11 The Fundamental Cause of the Emergence of Relative Backwardness

11.1 Introduction 191

11.2 Model Set-Up 193

11.2.1 Implications of This Model for Steady-State per Capita GDP 200

11.3 Major Fundamental Determinant of Brazilian Relative Backwardness 203

11.4 Major Differences From Alternative Hypotheses 204

11.4.1 Major Differences From Dependency Theory 204

11.4.2 Major Differences From the New Institutionalist Hypothesis 206

11.5 Conclusions 207

12 Social Conflict as the Source of Brazilian Relative Backwardness

12.1 Introduction 209

12.2 Major Social Conflicts in Brazilian History 211

12.3 Dynamics of Social Conflicts and the Relative Backwardness Legacy 214

12.3.1 Social Formation (1500-1822) 215

12.3.2 Backwardness Consolidation (1822-1930) 220

12.3.3 Search for National Identity (1930 to Present) 222

12.4 Conclusion 229

13 Social Conflicts and Human Capital Accumulation in the Period of Search for National Identity

13.1 Introduction 231

13.2 Major Protagonist Social Classes Within This Period 233

13.3 Social Affinities Among Social Classes 235

13.4 Class Conflicts in the Period of Search for National Identity and Incentives for Educational Policy 238

13.5 Relevant Facts About Human Capital Evolution After 1930 239

13.6 General View of Class Conflict Consequences for the Evolution of Human Capital 245

13.6.1 Identification of Subperiods in the Brazilian Search for Social Identity 248

13.7 Conclusions 254

14 Conclusion

14.1 Introduction 257

14.2 Restatement of the Major Hypothesis 259

14.2.1 Fundamental Causes of Brazilian Underdevelopment 261

14.3 Some Relevance of the Conclusions 262.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-273) and index.

ISBN:

9780128097564

0128097566

OCLC:

950450253