Juliano Assunção

Testing Household-Specific Explanations for the Inverse Productivity Relationship

The inverse relationship between land productivity and farm size is an old and puzzling empirical regularity. Most explanations for this relationship rely on market imperfections that jointly determine the farm size and the households shadow price of some productive inputs. We use plot-level data from the ICRISAT/VLS to assess whether these household-specific theories can explain the puzzle. The data exhibit plots of different sizes being simultaneously cropped by the same household. The inverse relationship is shown to hold true with the same magnitude across the plots of each household, thus cross-household heterogeneity does not suffice to explain the puzzle. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

Can unobserved heterogeneity in farmer ability explain the inverse relationship between farm size and productivity

Abstract The well-known inverse relationship between farm size and productivity is usually explained in terms of diminishing returns with respect to land and other inputs coupled with various types of market frictions that prevent the efficient allocation of land across farms. We show that even in the absence of diminishing returns one can provide an alternative explanation for this phenomenon using endogenous occupational choice and heterogeneity with respect to farming skills.

Deforestation slowdown in the Brazilian Amazon: prices or policies?

This paper investigates the contribution of agricultural output prices and policies to the reduction in Amazon deforestation in the 2000s. Based on a panel of Amazon municipalities from 2002 through 2009, we first show that deforestation responded to agricultural output prices. After controlling for price effects, we find that conservation policies implemented beginning in 2004 and 2008 significantly contributed to the curbing of deforestation. Counterfactual simulations suggest that conservation policies avoided approximately 73,000 km2 of deforestation, or 56 per cent of total forest clearings that would have occurred from 2005 through 2009 had the policies adopted beginning in 2004 and 2008 not been introduced. This is equivalent to an avoided loss of 2.7 billion tonnes of stored carbon dioxide.

Desenvolvimento desigual: evidências para o Brasil

The uneven development, or either, why growth rates differ between countries or regions, is still the main question of development economics, no matter which theory one follows: the convergence, coordination failure or market imperfection approach. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of Brazilian economy development over the 1970-2000 period, using Demographic Census data, in order to find signs of convergence or regional inequalities. The data analysis shows a uneven development among regions, that goes beyond the idea of differences between North/Northeast and the remainder of the country.

Condições de crédito no Brasil rural

This paper presents the families’ credit conditions in rural areas in Brazil. We perform the analysis in two steps. First, we follow an indirect approach, where the credit rationing is associated to the wealth importance in the families’ decisions, using micro data from Demogra-phic Census of 1991 and 2000. The second stage is based on information about formal credit. The results point out to: (i) strong evidences of credit rationing; (ii) an unequal regional distribution of this credit ratio-ning; e (iii) no direct relationship between the families’ credit conditions and the total availability of formal credit.

Rural Organization and Land Reform in Brazil: The Role of Nonagricultural Benefits of Landholding

This article examines the effects of nonagricultural land use on agrarian organization and land reform in an economy characterized by limited credit and land rental markets. The nonagricultural demand for land, under credit constraint, generates a potential mismatch between the distribution of land and the distribution of farming skills. This disparity reduces the agricultural output if the land rental market is absent. A perfect land rental market is shown to determine the highest possible agricultural output. Policy implications from the model include, in addition to market improvements, the fact that small farmers rather than landless people should be the target of redistributive land reform programs.

Restrições de crédito e decisões intra-familiares

This paper provides empirical evidence on credit constraints and key intra-household decisions in Brazil; namely, occupational choice of heads and spouses, child labor and education. Our empirical strategy is based on the literature about wealth-constrained choices, in which credit constraints determine a relationship between initial wealth and household decisions. Using data from the National Surveys of Households (PNAD), we show a strong connection between wealth and such decisions. Our findings suggest credit constraints are relatively more binding for spouses, couples without children and single mothers. For the case of children, the girls are more affected by the lack of credit.

Climate change and agricultural productivity in Brazil: future perspectives

This paper evaluates the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. Cross-sectional variation in climate among Brazilian municipalities is used to estimate an equation in which geographical attributes determine agricultural productivity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions based on atmosphere–ocean, coupled with general circulation models (for 2030–2049), are used to simulate the impacts of climate change. Our estimates suggest that global warming under the current technological standards is expected to decrease the agricultural output per hectare in Brazil by 18 per cent, with the effects on municipalities ranging from−40 to+15 per cent.

Custos de Transporte, Urbanização e Desenvolvimento: Evidências a Partir da Criação de Cidades

This paper investigates the relationship between urbanization and individual incomes by exploring the role of transport costs in the process of urbanization. Our empirical framework is built on the importance of the transport networks, especially roads, in creating urban agglomerations and new towns. 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 in emerging towns around the roads. There is no statistically significant relationship between the accumulation of human capital in those towns and the individual incomes differently from the findings for large and medium-sized cities.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)