Working class wages during early industrialization: Brazilian evidence

Abstract

Does the working class gain or lose from the neo-classical capitalist path to industrialization? We bring new and compelling evidence from Brazil's development miracle, a prototypical example of Western capitalist development, by comparing the pre-industrial Northeast with the industrial South using national survey data from 1973 (N=68 893). The results are consistent with the hypothesis that industrialization raises the pay of almost every occupational group, bringing better jobs, and crucial in the longer term bringing more education. This in the short run, the working class appears to gain proportionally as much as other classes and, in the long run, it gains more, mainly because of new educational opportunities. Show more