Development of agriculture and the impact on income distribution: the Paraguayan experience

Abstract

This master degree project proposes to analyze the relationship between agricultural development and income distribution in Paraguay. The central hypothesis is that there would be a new process of agrarian and agricultural development in the country, reproducing the process observed in Brazil and in other Latin American countries, such as highlight the theses presented in the book "The rural areas in Brazil's twenty-first century: the formation a new agrarian and agricultural pattern". For this, will be analyzed: I) the dynamics of output and factor productivity in agriculture compared to other sectors of the economy; II) the progress in setting the agricultural labor market and the appropriation of income generated by increasing agricultural productivity; III) the impact of these changes in income distribution. The Paraguayan economy grew very fast-paced levels in recent years based on increased exports, especially soy. Simultaneously, there were improvements in indicators of poverty and inequality. The project will examine to what extent the changes in productivity and income growth in agriculture contributed to reducing poverty and inequality. The analysis will be based on information from microdata bases of the Permanent Survey of Homes (EPH) of the Directorate General of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses (DGEEC) of Paraguay between 2000 and 2014. (AU)