IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v71y2024icp444-464.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modernization and underemployment in a dual agrarian sector: The case of Brazil (1950–1980)

Author

Listed:
  • de Souza, Joao Paulo A.

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of employment trends in Brazilian agriculture between 1950 and 1980. Using primary data, I document the displacement of workers from large and mid-sized establishments and the expansion of self-employment in an increasingly fragmented smallholding sector. I compute novel measures of rural population and find significant corresponding trends in employment-to-population ratios, thus contributing new evidence of the persistence of rural underemployment in a period of fast industrialization and growth. I conclude by examining the main rural development policies adopted in the period within a coherent framework for understanding the adoption of technical innovations. I argue, in particular, that the State concentrated price and credit subsidies on large and mid-sized producers and neglected investments in research, extension, and rural infrastructure. This policy mix interacted with Brazil’s dual agrarian structure and enhanced the incentives for the adoption of labor-saving innovations.

Suggested Citation

  • de Souza, Joao Paulo A., 2024. "Modernization and underemployment in a dual agrarian sector: The case of Brazil (1950–1980)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 444-464.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:71:y:2024:i:c:p:444-464
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2024.07.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X2400105X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2024.07.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tavani, Daniele, 2012. "Wage bargaining and induced technical change in a linear economy: Model and application to the US (1963–2003)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 117-126.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2014. "Informality and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 109-126, Summer.
    3. Christoffersen, Leif E., 1969. "Taxas de Juro e a Estrutura de um Sistema de Bancos Comerciais em Condições Inflacionárias - O Caso do Brasil," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 23(2), April.
    4. C. Daniel Dillman, 1976. "Land and Labor Patterns in Brazil During the 1960s," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 49-70, January.
    5. Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1992. "Agricultural productivity, comparative advantage, and economic growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 317-334, December.
    6. Ricardo Hausmann & Lant Pritchett & Dani Rodrik, 2005. "Growth Accelerations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 303-329, December.
    7. Graham, Douglas H & Gauthier, Howard & de Barros, Jose Roberto Mendonca, 1987. "Thirty Years of Agricultural Growth in Brazil: Crop Performance, Regional Profile, and Recent Policy Review," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(1), pages 1-34, October.
    8. Binswanger, Hans, 1986. "Agricultural Mechanization: A Comparative Historical Perspective," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 1(1), pages 27-56, January.
    9. repec:fth:stanho:e-92-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Mahabub HOSSAIN & Manik L. BOSE & Bazlul A. A. MUSTAFI, 2006. "Adoption And Productivity Impact Of Modern Rice Varieties In Bangladesh," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 44(2), pages 149-166, June.
    11. Paula Bustos & Bruno Caprettini & Jacopo Ponticelli, 2016. "Agricultural Productivity and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1320-1365, June.
    12. Johnston, Bruce F & Cownie, John, 1969. "The Seed-Fertilizer Revolution and Labor Force Absorption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 569-582, Part I Se.
    13. Harry W. Ayer & G. Edward Schuh, 1972. "Social Rates of Return and Other Aspects of Agricultural Research: The Case of Cotton Research in São Paulo, Brazil," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 54(4_Part_1), pages 557-569.
    14. repec:hoo:wpaper:e-92-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Solon L. Barraclough & Arthur L. Domike, 1966. "Agrarian Structure in Seven Latin American Countries," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(4), pages 391-424.
    16. A. J. Julius, 2005. "Steady‐State Growth And Distribution With An Endogenous Direction Of Technical Change," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 101-125, February.
    17. repec:ekm:repojs:v:9:y:1989:i:1:id:1598 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Tokman, Víctor E. & García, Norberto E., 1981. "Dinámica del subempleo en América Latina," Series Históricas 8969, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    19. Mueller, Bernardo & Mueller, Charles, 2016. "The political economy of the Brazilian model of agricultural development: Institutions versus sectoral policy," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 12-20.
    20. Lopamudra Banerjee, 2010. "Effects of Flood on Agricultural Productivity in Bangladesh," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 339-356.
    21. Farman Ali & Ashok Parikh, 1992. "Relationships among Labor, Bullock, and Tractor Inputs in Pakistan Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 74(2), pages 371-377.
    22. Syvrud, Donald, 1972. "Estrutura e política de juros no Brasil - 1960/70," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 26(1), January.
    23. Hayami, Yujiro & Ruttan, V W, 1970. "Factor Prices and Technical Change in Agricultural Development: The United States and Japan, 1880-1960," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(5), pages 1115-1141, Sept.-Oct.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joao Paulo A. de Souza, 2017. "Biased Technical Change in Agriculture and Industrial Growth," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 549-583, July.
    2. Hiroyuki Takeshima, 2024. "Agricultural mechanisation and gendered labour activities across sectors: Micro‐evidence from multi‐country farm household data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 425-456, February.
    3. de Souza, Joao Paulo A., 2015. "Evidence of growth complementarity between agriculture and industry in developing countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-18.
    4. Paula Bustos & Juan Manuel Castro Vincenzi & Joan Monras & Jacopo Ponticelli, 2019. "Structural Transformation, Industrial Specialization, and Endogenous Growth," Working Papers wp2019_1906, CEMFI.
    5. Fajgelbaum, Pablo & Redding, Stephen, 2014. "External integration, structural transformation and economic development: evidence from Argentina," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60285, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Ponticelli, Jacopo & Bustos, Paula & Castro-Vincenzi, Juan & Monras, Joan, 2018. "Industrialization without Innovation," CEPR Discussion Papers 13379, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Danny McGowan & Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, 2015. "Reap What You Sow: Agricultural Productivity, Structural Change and Urbanization," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2015019, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    8. Santangelo, G., 2019. "Firms and Farms: The Local Effects of Farm Income on Firms’ Demand," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1924, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Mariolis Theodore & Konstantakis Konstantinos N. & Michaelides Panayotis G. & Tsionas Efthymios G., 2019. "A non-linear Keynesian Goodwin-type endogenous model of the cycle: Bayesian evidence for the USA," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Droller, Federico & Fiszbein, Martin, 2021. "Staple Products, Linkages, and Development: Evidence from Argentina," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(3), pages 723-762, September.
    11. Weslem Rodrigues Faria & Felipe Morelli Silva & Alexandre Nunes Almeida & Admir Antonio Betarelli Junior, 2025. "The relationship between rural credit policy and deforestation: evidence from Brazil," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 27(2), pages 231-263, April.
    12. Ager, Philipp & Goñi, Marc & Salvanes, Kjell Gunnar, 2023. "Gender-biased technological change: Milking machines and the exodus of women from farming," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 16/2023, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    13. Michael A. Clemens & Ethan G. Lewis & Hannah M. Postel, 2018. "Immigration Restrictions as Active Labor Market Policy: Evidence from the Mexican Bracero Exclusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(6), pages 1468-1487, June.
    14. Takeshima, Hiroyuki, 2015. "Identifying the effects of market imperfections for a scale biased agricultural technology: Tractors in Nigeria," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211937, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Luke Petach & Daniele Tavani, 2020. "Income shares, secular stagnation and the long‐run distribution of wealth," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 235-255, February.
    16. Ryan B. Edwards, 2024. "Spillovers from agricultural processing," Departmental Working Papers 2024-6, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    17. Jiancai Pi & Yuhan Luo, 2024. "Climate change and wage inequality," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 279-303, December.
    18. Carmignani, Fabrizio & Mandeville, Thomas, 2014. "Never been industrialized: A tale of African structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 124-137.
    19. G.A. Upali Wickramasinghe, 2017. "Fostering productivity in the rural and agricultural sector for inclusive growth in Asia and the Pacific," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 24(2), pages 1-22, December.
    20. Edwards, Ryan Barclay, 2024. "Spillovers from agricultural processing," SocArXiv uvjef, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:71:y:2024:i:c:p:444-464. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.