Technology adoption and effects of transfers across locations

This paper develops a two-period model with heterogeneous agents to analyze the e¤ects of transfers across locations on convergence, growth and welfare. The model has two important features. First, locations are asymmetric as it is assumed that there are more specialized occupations in the more developed one. Second, the returns on the investment to acquire new technology depend positively on the level of each region’s knowledge and on the level of the world knowledge assumed to be available to all. In one hand, the poor region has a disadvantage as it has a lower stock of knowledge. On the other hand, it has the advantage of not having yet exploited a greater stock of useable knowledge available in the world. Hence, there are two possible cases. When the returns are greater in the poor region, we obtain the following results: (i) the rich location grows slower; (ii) the transfers to the poor location enhances the country’s growth rate; and (iii) there is a positive amount of transfers to the poor region that is welfare improving. When the returns are greater in the rich region, the …rst two results are reversed and transfers to the rich region are welfare improving. In both cases, the optimal amount of transfer increases with the level of income disparity across regions and is not dependent on the level of the country’s economic development (measured by its income per capita). Barriers to the adoption of new technology available in the world can constrain the convergence process as it harms in greater length the poor region. The results do not change whether migration is allowed or not.

Skilled labor, unskilled labor, and economic growth

We assess the effects of the imperfect substitution between skilled and unskilled labor on economic growth in a model in which physical capital and skilled labor can be accumulated. It is shown that economies with higher substitutability between skilled and unskilled labor have higher levels of income per capita in the transition and in the long-run equilibrium. Furthermore, these economies have a higher level of skilled labor and a higher level of capital intensity in the long-run equilibrium. For certain parameters values, the speed of convergence depends positively on the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor.

Import substitution and economic growth

In spite of Latin America s dismal economic performance between the 1950s and 1980s, the region experienced strong capital deepening. Furthermore, pro- ductivity (measured as TFP) grew at low rates in comparison with the U.S. In this paper, we suggest that all these facts can be explained as a consequence of the restrictive trade regime adopted at that time. Our analytical framework is based on a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model, with scale economies in the capital- intensive sector. We assume an economy that is initially open and specialized in the production of labor-intensive goods. The trade regime is modeled as a move to a closed economy. The model produces results consistent with the Latin American experience. Speci cally, for a su¢ ciently small country, there will be no long-run growth in income per capita, but capital per capita will increase. As a result, measured TFP will fall.

Essays on economic growth

A fundamental question in development economics is why some economies are rich and others poor. To illustrate the income per capita gap across economies consider that the average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the richest 10 percent of economies in the year 2010 was a factor of 40-fold that of the poorest 10 percent of economies. In other words, the average person in a rich economy produces in just over 9 days what the average person in a poor economy produces in an entire year. What are the factors that can explain this difference in standard of living across the world today? With this in view, this dissertation is a conjunction of three essays on the economic growth field which we seek a possible responses to this question. The first essay investigates the existence of resource misallocation in the Brazilian manufacturing sector and measures possible distortions in it. Using a similar method of measurement to the one developed by Hsieh and Klenow (2009) and firm-level data for 1996-2011 we find evidence of misallocation in the manufacturing sector during the observed period. Moreover, our results show that misallocation has been growing since 2005, and it presents a non-smooth dynamic. Significantly, we find that the Brazilian manufacturing sector operates at about 50% of its efficient product. With this, if capital and labor were optimally reallocated between firms and sectors we would obtain an aggregate output growth of approximately 110-180% depending on the mode in which the capital share is measured. We also find that the economic crisis did not have a substantial effect on the total productivity factor or on the sector's misallocation. However, small firms in particular seem to be strongly affected in a global crisis. Furthermore, the effects described would be attenuated if we consider linkages and complementarity effects among sectors. Despite Brazil's well-known high tax burden, there is not evidence that this is the main source of resource misallocation. Moreover, there is a distinct pattern of structural change between the manufacturing sectors in industrialized countries and those in developing countries. Therefore, the second essay demonstrate that this pattern differs because there are some factors that distort the relative prices and also affect the output productivity. For this, we present a multi-sector model of economic growth, where distortions affect the relative prices and the allocation of inputs. This phenomenon imply that change of the production structure or perpetuation of the harmful structures to the growth rate of aggregate output. We also demonstrate that in an environment with majority decision, this distortion can be enhanced and depends on the initial distribution of firms. Furthermore, distortions in relative prices would lead to increases in the degree of misallocation of resources, and that imply that there are distinct patterns of structural changes between economies. Finally, the calibrated results of the framework developed here converge with the structural change observed in the firm-level data of the Brazilian manufacturing sector. Thereafter, using a cross-industry cross-country approach, the third essay investigates the existence of an optimal level of competition to enhance economic growth. With that in mind, we try to show that this optimal level is different from industrialized and under development economies due to the technology frontier distance, the terms of trade, and each economy's idiosyncratic characteristics. Therefore, the difference in competition industry-country level is a channel to explain the output for worker gap between countries. The theoretical and empirical results imply the existence of an inverted-U relationship between competition and growth: starting for an initially low level of competition, higher competition stimulates innovation and output growth; starting from a high initial level of competition, higher competition has a negative effect on innovation and output growth. Given on average industries in industrialized economies present higher competition level. With that if we control for the terms of trade and the industry-country fixed effect, if the industries of the developing economy operated under the same competition levels as of the industrialized ones, there is a potential increase of output of 0.2-1.0% per year. This effect on the output growth rate depends on the competition measurement used.

Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘Inverted-U’: the share of the rich is what it’s all about

This paper examines the current global scene of distributional disparities within-nations. There are six main conclusions. First, about 80 per cent of the world’s population now live in regions whose median country has a Gini not far from 40. Second, as outliers are now only located among middle-income and rich countries, the ‘upwards’ side of the ‘Inverted-U’ between inequality and income per capita has evaporated (and with it the statistical support there was for the hypothesis that posits that, for whatever reason, ‘things have to get worse before they can get better’). Third, among middle-income countries Latin America and mineral-rich Southern Africa are uniquely unequal, while Eastern Europe follows a distributional path similar to the Nordic countries. Fourth, among rich countries there is a large (and growing) distributional diversity. Fifth, within a global trend of rising inequality, there are two opposite forces at work. One is ‘centrifugal’, and leads to an increased diversity in the shares appropriated by the top 10 and bottom 40 per cent. The other is ‘centripetal’, and leads to a growing uniformity in the income-share appropriated by deciles 5 to 9. Therefore, half of the world’s population (the middle and upper-middle classes) have acquired strong ‘property rights’ over half of their respective national incomes; the other half, however, is increasingly up for grabs between the very rich and the poor. And sixth, Globalisation is thus creating a distributional scenario in which what really matters is the income-share of the rich — because the rest ‘follows’ (middle classes able to defend their shares, and workers with ever more precarious jobs in ever more ‘flexible’ labour markets). Therefore, anybody attempting to understand the within-nations disparity of inequality should always be reminded of this basic distributional fact following the example of Clinton’s campaign strategist: by sticking a note on their notice-boards saying “It’s the share of the rich, stupid”.

A elasticidade da pobreza em relação ao crescimento e à desigualdade de renda no nordeste rural brasileiro de 1995 a 2009: uma análise comparativa

This work aims to analyze how the growth in average income and the change in inequality in income distribution have impacted rural poverty in the Northeast in the period 1995 to 2009. Under the approach in Kakwani (1993) e Duclos and Araar (2006), and under the assumption of log-normality of income per capita, exposed in Bourguignon (2002) and Hoffmann (2005), are calculated growth and inequality elasticities of poverty to FGT poverty measures in order to observe the behavior of the sensitivity of poverty to changes in average household income and the change in income distribution / Gini index. Concurrently, decomposes the changes in measures of poverty (proportion of poor) between growth and distribution components (first proposed by Datt and Ravallion, 1992) to assess the effect of weight change and the effect of income inequality change change on poverty. Regarding the estimation of elasticities of poverty and growth and inequality elasticities of the two methodologies used in this work - under the assumption of lognormal distribution of income and FGT measures under the by Kakwani (1993) andDuclos e Araar (2006) - though do not result in identical values, to corroborate same results, ie the long-term decline in rural poverty from 1995 to 2009 the Northeast and the greater sensitivity of the Northeast Rural Poverty, observed in this same period, income growth and change in inequality. The weight of growth and change in inequality in changing the Northeast rural poverty identified that most of the decline in rural poverty is linked to growth in average income. This result coincides with results found by Kraay (2005) for a group of countries

Desigualdade regional da mortalidade neonatal no Brasil

In Brazil, despite the decline in infant mortality in recent decades it still has high rates going against recommended by WHO. Being the largest percentage of infant mortality rate composed of neonatal deaths. Objective: A study was conducted to analyze the spatial distribution of neonatal mortality and its correlation with the biological, socioeconomic and maternal and child health care in the Brazilian states in the period from 2006 to 2010. Method: The study made thematic maps and correlation (LISA) for verification of spatial dependence and multiple linear regression models. Results: Was found that there is no spatial autocorrelation for neonatal mortality in the Brazilian states (R = 0.002, p = 0.48). Most of variables were correlated (r> 0.3, p <0.05) with neonatal mortality, forming clusters in the North and Northeast, with the highest rates of teenage mothers, low household income per capita, lower prenatal appointments and beds of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The number of Neonatal UCI beds remained independent effect after regression analysis. Conclusion: The study concludes that regional inequalities in living conditions and especially the access to maternal and child health services contribute to the unequal distribution of neonatal mortality in Brazil

Influência das condições socioeconômicas nas alterações nutricionais e na taxa de metabolismo de repouso em crianças escolares moradoras em favelas no município de São Paulo

OBJETIVOS: Realizou-se um estudo transversal para avaliar a taxa de metabolismo de repouso (TMR) e condições socioeconômicas em 15 crianças escolares do sexo feminino; eutróficas (EU= estatura/idade 3 95% e peso/idade entre 90-110%) e 15 com desnutrição pregressa (DP= estatura/idade < 95% e peso/estatura entre 90-110%) moradoras em favelas no município de São Paulo. MÉTODOS: Avaliou-se a TMR por calorimetria indireta, e a situação socioeconômica por entrevista domiciliar. RESULTADOS: O grupo DP apresentou TMR mais alta quando expressa por unidade de peso corpóreo (EU= 40,5 Kcal/kg/dia; DP=44,4 Kcal/kg/dia, p<0,05) e por quilograma de massa magra (EU= 49,2 Kcal/kg/dia; DP=52,5 Kcal/kg/dia, p<0,05); e diferenças significantes para renda per capita, analfabetismo materno, número de parasitas por criança, número de ordem entre os filhos e número de irmãos. em análise multivariada as variáveis associadas à desnutrição foram renda per capita e analfabetismo materno. CONCLUSÕES: Embora os dois grupos tenham peso/estatura normais, a presença de baixa estatura leve foi acompanhada por alterações metabólicas e socioeconômicas típicas de um quadro de desnutrição.

Globalizing talent and human capital: implications for developing countries

Includes bibliography

Savings in Latin America after the mid 1990s: determinants, constraints and policies

Includes bibliography

Níveis séricos de vitamina A em crianças de 6-71 meses de idade em uma Unidade Básica de Saúde no município de Botucatu - SP

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estratégia saúde da família: avaliação dos cuidados em saúde e nutrição aos adultos diabéticos e hipertensos, Matão-SP

Pós-graduação em Alimentos e Nutrição - FCFAR

Depressão e apoio social percebido por mães de crianças hospitalizadas

This study was performed as a requirement of the final course in Nursing. The study is cross-cutting, in order to identify associations between socioeconomic factors, education, child hospitalization in the ICU or not, degree of depression and level of social support (material, affective, emotional, informational and positive social interaction) and how to identify subgroups of mother - child vulnerable. Constitute themselves as subjects, mothers of children 0 to 17 years, 11 months and 29 days in hospital after the second day of hospitalization in the pediatric unit of a State Hospital Interior Paulista. Data collection was initiated after obtaining the assent of the Research Ethics Committee, as well as signing the consent form. We used the following instruments to collect data: the data form for socioeconomic and hospitalization; Beck Depression Inventory and Medical Outcomes Study (MOS). We obtained the result that there is a strong association between availability and social support and income per capita and the degree of depression, but did not find an association between time and hospital stay and whether the child was admitted to the ICU or not. We conclude that it is necessary to establish treatment services from the patient’s family, plus an appropriate social service support to meet this big demand for mothers who need support

Curva de Kuznets ambiental para o Estado de Mato Grosso

Issues concerning deforestation have become a crucial theme in the environmental world debate. In this picture, Mato Grosso State has become an unfavorable example because it represents 36% of the accumulated deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. In order to investigate the relationship between deforestation and income growth, this paper estimates an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for 139 cities of Mato Grosso through spatial econometrics. Using data for the year 2006, we estimate an EKC for the deforestation per capita against income per capita and other variables controlling the spatial effects. The preliminary results indicate that an EKC exists in a reversed U shape, i. e., the income growth reduces environmental effects from the maximum point. However, introducing a cubic term for the income, the economic growth would not reveal any relationship with the deforestation in the Mato Grosso State.

Determinants of child undernutrition in India. A micro-case study to operationalize the Capability Approach

The present research aims at shedding light on the demanding puzzle characterizing the issue of child undernutrition in India. Indeed, the so called ‘Indian development paradox’ identifies the phenomenon according to which higher level of income per capita is recorded alongside a lethargic reduction in the proportion of underweight children aged below three years. Thus, in the time period occurring from 2000 to 2005, real Gross Domestic Production per capita has annually grown at 5.4%, whereas the proportion of children who are underweight has declined from 47% to 46%, a mere one point percent. Such trend opens up the space for discussing the traditionally assumed linkage between income-poverty and undernutrition as well as food intervention as the main focus of policies designed to fight child hunger. Also, it unlocks doors for evaluating the role of an alternative economic approach aiming at explaining undernutrition, such as the Capability Approach. The Capability Approach argues for widening the informational basis to account not only for resources, but also for variables related to liberties, opportunities and autonomy in pursuing what individuals value.The econometric analysis highlights the relevance of including behavioral factors when explaining child undernutrition. In particular, the ability of the mother to move freely in the community without the need of asking permission to her husband or mother-in-law is statistically significant when included in the model, which accounts also for confounding traditional variables, such as economic wealth and food security. Also, focusing on agency, results indicates the necessity of measuring autonomy in different domains and the need of improving the measurement scale for agency data, especially with regards the domain of household duties. Finally, future research is required to investigate policy venues for increasing agency in women and in the communities they live in as viable strategy for reducing the plague of child undernutrition in India.