The dynamics of industrial geographic distribution: evidence from Brazil (2002-2014)

ABSTRACT The geographical distribution of Brazilian industries changed between 2002 and 2014, and it was more significant for some industries. Based on Dumais et al. (2002), we explore the dynamics of these changes by a decomposition of the employment variation and concentration index for manufacturing industries grouped by technological intensity, and we identify the direction of the locational movements of the firms among microregions. In general., the results indicate that between 2002 and 2014, there was a trend of convergence among the microregions’ participation in industrial employment, contributing to industrial deconcentration in the country, with the exception of the group of high-technology industries, which became more concentrated. Components of the life cycle of industries, especially the growth of employment generated by new industries in non-metropolitan microregions, are identified as main propelling of this evidence. In general., the results are consistent with the importance of agglomeration economies over historic accidents to explain the industrial concentration in Brazil between 2002 and 2014.

Nafta and Mexico’s Economic Growth from a Gender Perspective

This paper investigates the dynamics of Mexico’s economy after the signing of the NAFTA treaty. It is reported that Mexico, the United States and Canada have experienced low rates of economic growth as a result of the deindustrialization processes they have undergone, which has been a consequence of the tariff reductions. Tariff reduction has also affected employment, especially female industrial employment, with adverse consequences on domestic savings, trade balance and economic growth. Additional analysis is related to cointegration tests of the employment ratios, as well as to the existence of principal components among the three countries’ employment to population ratios. The paper investigates the effects of declining employment to population ratios in the three countries, reporting that in Mexico female employment has increased to compensate the declining tendencies of labor productivity and male employment ratio. The paper ends with a proposal regarding the launching of the North American Social and Dignity Pact.

THE EFFECT OF DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE ON CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) EMISSIONS: TOP EMITTERS CASE STUDY

This study aims to analyze how the demographic structure affects carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Top Emitters, namely China, the United States, the European Union (EU-28), India, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. This study uses panel data from ten countries stated in Top Emitters for the period 2000-2014 sourced from the World Resource Institute, World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics. This study uses the Panel Data Regression method with the best model chosen is the Random Effect Model (REM) and four demographic structure variables, namely the dependency ratio, sex ratio, higher education ratio, industrial employment ratio. The results of this study indicate that the dependency ratio, sex ratio, higher education ratio, industrial employment ratio have a significant effect on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Top Emitters. The results of this study are expected to provide policies that can be implemented by the government.Keywords: Demographic Structure, Top Emitters, Panel Data Regression MethodJEL : I25, O15, Q5

Deindustrialization and the Postsocialist Mortality Crisis

An unprecedented mortality crisis struck Eastern Europe during the transition from socialism to capitalism. Working-class men without a college degree suffered the most. Some argue that economic dislocation caused stress and despair, leading to adverse health behavior and ill health (dislocation-despair approach). Others suggest that hazardous drinking inherited as part of a dysfunctional working-class culture and populist alcohol policy were the key determinants (supply-culture approach). We enter this debate by performing the first quantitative analysis of the association between economic dislocation in the form of industrial employment decline and mortality in postsocialist Eastern Europe. We rely on a novel multilevel dataset, fitting survival and panel models covering 52 towns and 42,800 people in 1989-1995 in Hungary and 514 medium-sized towns in the European part of Russia. The results show that deindustrialization was significantly associated with male mortality in both countries directly and indirectly mediated by adverse health behavior as a dysfunctional coping strategy. Both countries experienced severe deindustrialization, but social and economic policies seem to have offset Hungary’s more immense industrial employment loss. The policy implication is that social and economic policies addressing the underlying causes of stress and despair can improve health.

“GOOD, BETTER, BEST”

Turner Station, Maryland, is a century-old African American neighborhood just east of Baltimore that housed the families of workers who were employed at a nearby steel plant from the founding of the community in the early 1900s until the plant closed in 2012. Its story provides a window into the lives of the understudied Black working-class during the peak decades of industrial employment and the ensuing decades of decline. Long-time residents recall a vibrant, self-sufficient community with a heterogeneous class structure, produced in part by residential restrictions and employment discrimination that constrained professionals such as physicians and teachers to reside and to practice or work in the neighborhood. They report a high level of collective efficacy and joint responsibility for childrearing. Current and former residents describe a strong emphasis on education as a means of upward mobility. As levels of education rose and residential opportunities opened, the children of the mid-century steelworkers left Turner Station for other communities in the metropolitan area and beyond. As out migration continued, the community suffered a decline: virtually all of the businesses are gone, vacant homes are common, and a more transient population has moved in. The members of the Turner Station diaspora still cherish the memory of the neighborhood, even as many have moved on and up. Their achievements show what happened when a generation of African Americans were given access to decent-paying jobs that did not require a college education—a degree of access that no longer exists because of the decline of industrial employment in the Baltimore region and elsewhere.