Skill concentration and persistence in Brazil

Abstract

This paper links the past and present regional concentration of skills using the spatial distributions of occupations from the Brazilian censuses of 1872, 1920 and 2010. The data indicate that the concentration of top skills is highly persistent. Multivariate regressions show that regions with a high concentration of industrial and liberal occupations in the past have a high concentration of interpersonal, analytical and cognitive skills today. Moreover, it is observed that skill persistence seems to be positively related to market size. Controlling for natural advantages, the dependence on slave labour and immigration in the past does not undermine the relevance of the historical skill distribution.