Investimentos em infra-estrutura e produtividade total dos fatores na agricultura Brasileira: 1985-2004

Abstract

Infrastructure investments in Brazil were reduced significantly since the decade of 1980, possibly compromising Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and agricultural competitivity. In this paper, Solow's growth model with panel data is used to estimate TFP. An adaptation of the model of Zhang and Fan (2004) for India, using the Generalized Method of Moments, was applied to find effect of infrastructure investments on TFP. Estimations suggest that these investments affect agriculture TFP in the first years and its return occurs in the period of 0 to 2 years. Road investments have the highest impact on TFP, followed by investments on research, telecommunications, irrigation, and electric energy.