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.
The beef cattle sector is the leading driver of deforestation worldwide. This creates high sectoral emissions, which are geographically concentrated in expanding agricultural frontiers.
Market power can be beneficial to the environment – by distorting production to lower levels, emissions also decrease. But what happens when the regions affected by market power are the most productive, lowest emitters?
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.