Papers by Alexandre Barros
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
RESUMO Este artigo apresenta algumas hipóteses sobre a determinação de salários e baseia-se em um... more RESUMO Este artigo apresenta algumas hipóteses sobre a determinação de salários e baseia-se em uma pesquisa com 210 questionários aplicados a trabalhadores em Recife para testá-los empiricamente. As principais conclusões são: (i) O capital humano é um fator importante na determinação dos salários reais e o ambiente doméstico é crucial para sua acumulação; (ii) a força de negociação dos trabalhadores, medida pelo modelo sindical, bem como o tamanho e a propriedade da empresa, também são fatores relevantes para determinar o salário real; (iii) a afiliação de sindicatos à Central Única dos Trabalhadores aumenta os salários; (iv) a idade é uma variável relevante para determinar os salários, mas apenas no conjunto que inclui empresas estatais; (v) o número de dependentes também é relevante para determinar os salários relativos; e (vi) os salários para as mulheres são mais baixos que para os homens.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 2002
RESUMO Este artigo mostra as concepções básicas das ideias subjacentes que apoiam as políticas de... more RESUMO Este artigo mostra as concepções básicas das ideias subjacentes que apoiam as políticas de agrupamento e explica suas origens e justificativas para desempenhar um papel importante no desenvolvimento econômico. Argumenta-se que, embora tenham sido promovidas enquanto as ideias liberais eram hegemônicas, os conceitos que dão suporte às políticas de agrupamento não se baseiam apenas nessa ideologia. Eles também buscam apoio em ideias que aceitam intervenções públicas na economia. Isso significa que uma das estratégias mais eficientes para promover o desenvolvimento econômico atualmente tem atitudes céticas em relação a vários preceitos liberais.
Revista Brasileira De Economia, 1996
This paper presents a supply and demand model for lhe determinants of exports of manufactures fro... more This paper presents a supply and demand model for lhe determinants of exports of manufactures from Brazil, which encompasses most of lhe olher models found in the related literature. In the process of specifying lhe model, many of Ihese studies are critically reviewed. Este artigo apresenta um modelo de oferta e demanda para os determinantes da exportação de produtos manufaturados pelo Brasil, englobando a maioria dos outros modelos encontrados na literatura correlata. No processo de se especificar o modelo, muitos desses estudos foram examinados criticamente. * Paper received in lan. and approved in Apr. 1995. ** SI. Antony's College, University ofOxford. *** Visiting professor, Pimes/UFPe. This paper was written while Ihis author was a Senior Associate member in SI. Antony's College, Oxford. I The data set used is for 1%4-88, but lhe period included in the estimations spans from 1965 to 1988, due to lhe inclusion of one lag in lhe dependent variable.
Anais Do Xxxi Encontro Nacional De Economia Proceedings of the 31th Brazilian Economics Meeting, Feb 1, 2003
This paper discusses the relationship between the elasticities of wages and productivity with res... more This paper discusses the relationship between the elasticities of wages and productivity with respect to human capital. The goal is to search if there is a distortion on the expected relationship between these two variables, given market forces and a selfish behavior by agents, as it is found in some Europeans countries. A general equilibrium, overlapping generation model that can capture the relationship between these two elasticities is presented. Two equations that emerge from this model are estimated, using data from RAIS and IBGE Pesquisa Industrial Annual for 2000. The results indicate that local labor market attenuates income inequality, transferring income from more qualified to less qualified workers, similarly to what happens in European labor markets. Resumo Esse trabalho discute a relação entre as elasticidades dos salários e da produtividade com respeito ao capital humano dos indivíduos. O seu objetivo é investigar se no Brasil, assim como tem sido apontado em alguns países europeus, há distorções a partir de valores sociais que mudam a relação que essas duas elasticidades deveriam ter, se determinadas apenas a partir da racionalidade egoísta dos agentes e as forças de mercado. Um modelo de equilíbrio geral com gerações justapostas é desenvolvido para explicar a relação entre essas duas elasticidades. Dados da RAIS e da Pesquisa Industrial Anual do IBGE são utilizados para estimar duas equações desse modelo. Os resultados indicam que há transferência de renda dos indivíduos mais qualificados para os menos qualificados, semelhante a que ocorre nos países europeus. Ou seja, apesar do Brasil ter uma alta concentração de renda, o mercado de trabalho contribui para atenuá-la através de valores que afetam a distribuição de ganhos entre os trabalhadores.
Planejamento E Politicas Publicas, Aug 14, 2009
This paper estimates the role of social capital in individual labor incomes in Brazil. It starts ... more This paper estimates the role of social capital in individual labor incomes in Brazil. It starts discussing the concept and the measurement of social capital, so that a procedure that identifies a group of individuals in society that has a negligible social capital can be built. As a consequence, the role of social capital in individual labor income can be estimated through a Mincerian type equation. Results indicate that this role reaches 63%, on average. This means that weak institutions have throw the Brazilian economy to a high dependence on social capital for the search processes in labor market and for the ability to generate trust on economic relationships. Therefore, public policies should always be concerned with their consequences for social capital formation and there should exist particular policies to increase trust and reduce the costs of search so that the role of social capital in individual incomes falls. Key words: Social capital; Social networks; Mincerian equation; Migration.
This paper is divided into two parts. The first part reviews the theoretical arguments that have ... more This paper is divided into two parts. The first part reviews the theoretical arguments that have surrounded the issue of the deterioration in the terms of trade since the 1950s. The second part reviews critically some of the most important methods used to test the hypothesis of deterioration in the terms of trade for primary commodities. New tests for the periods 1948-1989 and 1921-1986 are presented. The results support the hypothesis that there is a long-term deterioration in the terms of trade for primary commodities.
This paper studies the evolution of the quality of education in Brazil in the last fifty years. I... more This paper studies the evolution of the quality of education in Brazil in the last fifty years. It begins explaining why there was a genesis of a low quality education in the country during this period and the role such bad quality may have had on its economic efficiency and development. Some tests of the hypothesis that there has been improvement in the quality of education in the last fifty years are presented. The results support the idea, but as a consequence of lack of priority on public policies and social changes, which engaged women on the labour market, there was a sensible fall in the quality of education in Brazil in the same period. This certainly increased the costs of productivity improvements and catch up, thus consisting in a serious liability for the future development of the country.
This paper estimates the role of social capital in individual labor incomes in Brazil. It starts ... more This paper estimates the role of social capital in individual labor incomes in Brazil. It starts discussing the concept and the measurement of social capital, so that a procedure that identifies a group of individuals in society that has a negligible social capital can be built. As a consequence, the role of social capital in individual labor income can be estimated through a Mincerian type equation. Results indicate that this role reaches 63%, on average. This means that weak institutions have throw the Brazilian economy to a high dependence on social capital for the search processes in labor market and for the ability to generate trust on economic relationships. Therefore, public policies should always be concerned with their consequences for social capital formation and there should exist particular policies to increase trust and reduce the costs of search so that the role of social capital in individual incomes falls.
This paper relies in a simple micro-model which is able to capture the impact of all major factor... more This paper relies in a simple micro-model which is able to capture the impact of all major factors forwarded in the literature to explain the generation of market incentives for clustering. The model helps to understand the role of each of these factors, unveiling those that play any role as either necessary and/or sufficient conditions to provide market incentives for clustering. The factors analysed are: (i) existence of externalities, (ii) increasing returns to scale and (iii) spatial concentration of demand. It is argued that all the other market incentives appearing in the literature can be classified as one of these three factors. Existence of externality is seen as the only necessary and sufficient condition to generate market incentives for clustering. The two others demand the existence of externality to be able to generate market incentives for clustering. Palavras-chave: Clustering, externalidades, aglomeração, clusters.
Economia Aplicada, 2006
O objetivo desse trabalho é avaliar a experiência do PRONAF entre os agricultores do Estado de Pe... more O objetivo desse trabalho é avaliar a experiência do PRONAF entre os agricultores do Estado de Pernambuco. São utilizados dados sobre aproximadamente 4.500 agricultores familiares desse Estado, coletados em 2001, divididos entre beneficiários do programa e um grupo de controle. Os resultados são apresentados para a amostra total, excluídos os assentados, e por grupo do PRONAF (B, C e D). As estimativas são corrigidas para a existência de viés de participação com a utilização do método de Propensity Score. Os resultados indicam que o PRONAF mostrou-se pouco eficaz em Pernambuco até esse período. Quando as diferenças de características e probabilidades de participação do programa são consideradas, os resultados indicam que o programa não tem gerado um impacto significativo para o público-alvo em Pernambuco.
The paper presents some cohérence analyses to show that Brazilian economic time series are reason... more The paper presents some cohérence analyses to show that Brazilian economic time series are reasonably correlated in business cycle frequencies. It also gives a business cycle periodization forthe period 1856-1985, which recognizes three types of cycles: Kitchin, Juglar and Kuznets cycles. In addition, the paper contrasts the cycles found with cycles previously identified in the literature. 1. lntroduction; 2. Coherence analysis of some economic time series; 3. An index to identify the Brazilian Business Cycles; 4: Major types of Business Cycles; 5. Spectral identijication oflhe cycles; 6. Periodizalion oflhe Brazilian Business Cycles; 7. Comparing our cieles periodization with previous cycles identijications in lhe lilerature; 8. Conclusion. 1.Introduction As in other countries cyclicaI fluctuations are aIso present in the Brazilian economy. This idea has not been chaIlenged in the literature on Brazilian long-term growth, but most of these cycles have been attributed to occasionaI shocks. Many of these are externaI shocks, such as the fali in coffee prices at the end of last century and the beginning of this one, or oil shocks, as those in the seventies. There are aIso some shocks generated internally, however, as the Paraguayan War and the Proclamation of the Republic (Contador & Haddad, 1975) in the last century, and inflation and political disruptioils in the sixties. These ideas are in line with those presented by Blanchard and Watson (1986) for the United States, when they argue that there is possibly no such things as •Ph.D in economics, University of IlIinois, USA; economist, InternationaI Sugar Organizalion, London. •• The author gratefully acknowIedges CNPq for financiaI support and Professor Werner Baer and Analice Amazonas for helpful comments to a previous version of this paper. The views expressed in the paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the InternationaI Sugar Organization.
The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2008
This paper summarizes the sources of impact of privatization on the risk of shares of the compani... more This paper summarizes the sources of impact of privatization on the risk of shares of the companies. The hypothesis that there is such impact is tested empirically, through econometric estimation using data from Light and Vale do Rio Doce, two Brazilian companies. Three sources are identified: (i) companies become subject to more competition, (ii) They face more credit constraint, and (iii) increase hiring flexibility and significant change in its costs and in its efficiency it interns. Tests of the existence hypothesis were carried on, using ARHC Model. Results confirmed the major hypothesis for the two companies studied.
… Desigualdade e Pobreza …, 1999
O Plano Nacional de Qualificação Profissional (PLANFOR), desenvolvido pela Secretaria de Formação... more O Plano Nacional de Qualificação Profissional (PLANFOR), desenvolvido pela Secretaria de Formação Profissional do Ministério do Trabalho e EmpregoSEFOR, consiste no mais audacioso e bem articulado programa de qualificação profissional já desenvolvido no ...
This paper studies the effect of financial repression and contract enforcement on entrepreneurshi... more This paper studies the effect of financial repression and contract enforcement on entrepreneurship and economic development. We construct and solve a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents, occupational choice and two financial frictions: intermediation costs and financial contract enforcement. Occupational choice and firm size are determined endogenously, and depend on agent type (wealth and ability) and credit market frictions. The model shows that differences across countries in intermediation costs and enforcement generate differences in occupational choice, firm size, credit, output and inequality. Counterfactual experiments are performed for Latin American, European, transition and high growth Asian countries. We use empirical estimates of each country's financial frictions, and United States values for all other parameters. The results allow us to isolate the quantitative effect of these financial frictions in explaining the performance gap between each count...
This paper analyzes the role infrastructure investments have had on regional disparities in Brazi... more This paper analyzes the role infrastructure investments have had on regional disparities in Brazil. Using some supply indicators and forecasted optimal supply for each state, given per capita GDP, population, area, demographic density and urbanization, it finds that such supply has fostered regional disparities. As most of the infrastructure investments are largely influenced by government policies, as a consequence of
This paper relies on some data to identify the XIX century as the major period in which Brazil Ec... more This paper relies on some data to identify the XIX century as the major period in which Brazil Economy lagged behind some chosen benchmarking countries, as the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and some European periphery countries. To identify the reasons for this an exercise using immigration data was used to make a decomposition of the sources of growth of the Proportion of the USA per capita GDP to the Brazilian one. The results indicate that the imported human capital was responsible for 59% to 88% of this total growth between 1820 and 1900. This means that human capital built is the major determinant of the increase in Brazilian relative backwardness in the XIX century. Nevertheless, institutions could still be the major responsible for the relative attraction of human capital either to Brazil or the USA.
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Papers by Alexandre Barros