I just ran across a really interesting working paper by Rocha, Ferraz, and Soares called “Human Capital Persistence and Development.” They take advantage of a historical curiosity in Brazil to explore whether human capital differences last over time and if so, how much that was reflected in per-capita income.
Here they describe the historical curiosity;
“After the international ban on slave trade in 1850, and in the midst of a massive inflow of European immigrants to Brazil, immigrants with relatively more education were channeled into specific localities through deliberate government policies. In the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, public authorities established a number of official settlement colonies throughout the state of São Paulo. This policy had goals involving occupation of territory, food production, “whitening” of the population, and was driven by a centralized decision at the state level. The settlements were established…
View original post 180 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments