Desigualdade regional, migração e urbanização: três ensaios sobre desenvolvimento

Abstract

This thesis applies common themes in Development Economics to the study of cities in a context of developing economies. The article Uneven Development: evidences for Brazil presents the Brazilian process of economic development over the 1970-2000 period, establishing direct evidence on convergence or divergence. Based on the Demographic Census data, the results points out to an unequal development process among regions. There is no evidence of convergence in the three decades analyzed, and the spatial heterogeneity goes beyond the geographical administrative divisions of the States or the macro regions North, Northeast, Center-West, Southeast and South. The paper Migration and Regional Labor Market estimates the labor market impact of emigration caused by the construction of the Belém-Teresina road. In other to estimate more consistently the elasticities of substitution, we use the distance to the road as an instrument to the total of emigrants, which represents the supply shift that identifies the demand condition. This approach estimates negative and significant coefficients and, consequently, the wage effects are larger. The analysis indicates that emigration lowers the wage of workers in some skill groups at different cities, although the average effect was positive. Finally, the article Transport Costs, Urbanization and Development: evidences from cities formation investigates the relationship between urbanization and individual incomes. We find that, although this relationship exists, it is not, necessarily, direct. Productive structure and local labor market are important channels that link urbanization and individual income.