Economy & Energy
Year VIII -No 42:
February-March 2004  
ISSN 1518-2932

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Distribution of the Hydraulic Potential in a Hydrographic Basin

Sustainable Development

Unemployment

Capital Productivity in Brazil from 1950 to 2000

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Thesis:

Capital  Productivity in Brazil from  1950 to 2002

Aumara Feu
aumara@ecen.com

Author's name: Aumara Bastos Feu Alvim de Souza

Advisor: Maurício Barata de Paula Pinto

Department of Economy of the Brasília University

Date of defense: 12/02/2003
 

Abstract        

This study aims at analyzing the capital productivity in Brazil, its historical behavior and influence on the future development of the country. Chapter 1 inserts in the Solow-Swan basic model the possibility of varying depreciation with time according to the composition and behavior of investments in the past. With this modification, the capital dynamics is closer to reality, that is, depreciation becomes dependent on the capital age, making it possible to evaluate how shocks in the capital lifetime affect the behavior of the capital stock and consequently that of the product. This treatment is coherent with the methodology - method of perpetual stock, used in Chapter 2, where the capital stock series of the OECD countries and of some Latin American ones are calculated. It is observed that in the second half of the last century the capital productivity decreased in most of the analyzed countries results from both the more capital-intensive character of the activities on the average and the re-allocation of the product to capital-intensive activities. In what concerns Brazil, the capital productivity has decreased considerably, reaching the average level observed in the OECD countries, in spite of the fact that the average output per worker   in Brazil is one third of the value in those countries. Finally, in Chapter 3, after removing from the Brazilian capital/product ratio series (inverse of the capital productivity) the influence of variations on the installed capacity, it was verified that, with a smaller capital productivity plateau, Brazil has a limited capacity of convergence to the same income level of the developed countries as well as of remunerating the capital, which might cause the present low investment level in the country. Therefore, the study shows that increasing the capital productivity could be the path to increase the sustainable growth of the country.

Key Words: Capital, productivity, growth

 

Thesis committee composed of PhD Professors:

Maurício Barata de Paula Pinto (Thesis Advisor) - from UNB

Joaquim P. de Andrade - from UNB

José Roberto Novaes de Almeida - from UNB

Carlos Eugênio Ellery da Costa  - from FGV

Tito Belchior Silva Moreira - from UNB

 

 The thesis was unanimously given a cum laude praise.

Power Point Presentation(only in Portuguese)

Full text in PDF (only in Portuguese)

 

Graphic Edition/Edição Gráfica:
MAK
Editoração Eletrônic
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Revised/Revisado:
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
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