Trade Liberalization, Income, and Multidimensional Deprivation in Brazil

Overview & Synopsis

The aim of this study is to treat the trade liberalization's impacts in both monetary and non-monetary conditions. Using the difference-indifferences method and a panel from 1987-1997, the obtained evidence suggests that trade liberalization have differently impacted the labor force within formality and informality; import and export sectors; in terms of income and household's deprivation. Trade have worsened the average income and implied a deterioration in the household's multidimensional conditions in the formal sectors and contributed to the labor informalization process already underway, putting in evidence the migration of workers towards informality. Moreover, although the shock of trade harmed more intensely import sectors, export sectors would be expelling skilled better-paid workers to specialize in unskilled lower paid labor. The trade liberalization perpetuated the international division of labor and was unable to permit structural changes capable of adjusting distortions inherent to the national productive structure.