sexta-feira, fevereiro 27, 2004
EUA: Um Case Study de Convergência Economica Numa Zona de Comércio Livre
Um artigo de Virginia Postrel no NYT aponta um exemplo de como, contrariamente ao que afirmam os alter-globalistas, os rendimentos dos diversos estados numa zona de comércio livre têm convergido e que a Economia têm crescido globalmente. Esse exemplo são os EUA.
We rarely realize that we already live in a version of that theoretical world. The United States is one giant free trade zone. Businesses can move their plants, investors can move their money and workers can move themselves from region to region without government permission.
Over the last century, a lot of that movement has occurred. Rich and poor regions have converged to about the same standard of living. But the results haven't been anything like the "race to the bottom" of protectionist imaginations.
Incomes still vary widely across regions. Income per capita in Connecticut, the richest state, was about $42,000 in 2002, compared with $24,000 in New Mexico, the poorest. (These figures aren't adjusted for price variations between regions.)
Today's differences are small, however, compared with the huge differences that used to exist. A century ago, the poor states were like third world countries compared with the richest states. They've caught up only since 1960.
Adjusted for regional price differences, income per worker in the South was just two-thirds of the country's average as recently as 1940, according to calculations by two economists, Kris James Mitchener and Ian W. McLean, reported in The Journal of Economic History.
The disparity was even greater in the late 19th century.
(...)
In fact, states like New York, California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts have remained at the top of the list for more than a century. They've kept growing, though at a slower rate than poorer states. The most dramatic improvement has been in Florida, which was among the poorest states in 1880 and among the richest a century later.
Neste artigo Virgina Postrel realça o papel fulcral produtividade como garante do crescimento a longo prazo e que um crescimento baseado na exploração dos recursos naturais e no crescimento demográfico têm limites.
Embora este artigo não o refira explicitamente realço ainda que o intervencionismo estatal pode, numa zona de comércio livre, empobrecer uma região relativamente a outra onde é seguida uma polítca mais liberal. A este propósito ver os comentários a este post do EconLog (o exemplo do Estado de New York).
Gostaria ainda de relembrar que nos EUA não utilizaram os dinheiros do FEDER...
posted by Miguel Noronha 10:37 da manhã
Comments:
Enviar um comentário
