In this paper, published in the American Economic Review, Bustos, Caprettini and Ponticelli (2016) study the effects of the adoption of new agricultural technologies on structural transformation.
Increases in the minimum wage can substantially reduce earnings inequality. To demonstrate this, we combine administrative and survey data with an equilibrium model of the Brazilian labor market.
In all modern bureaucracies, politicians retain some discretion in public employment decisions, which may lead to frictions in the selection process if political connections substitute for individual competence.
The introduction of labor-saving technologies in agriculture can release workers who find occupation in the manufacturing sector. The traditional view is that this structural transformation process leads to economic growth.
Several scholars argue that high agricultural productivity can retard industrial development because it draws resources toward the comparative advantage sector, agriculture.
Colonnelli and Prem (2019) estimate the causal real economic effects of a randomized anticorruption crackdown on local governments in Brazil over the period 2003-2014.
In this paper, published in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Alvarez, Benguria, Engbom and Moser (2018) document a large decline in earnings inequality in Brazil between 1996 and 2012.
