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Abstract
This study analyses the regional convergence of the levels of
labor productivity in the agricultural sector of the state of Rio Grande
do Sul, through a Markov matrix. It also examines the variables that
explain this convergence, through the statistical technique of principal
components followed by statistical regression. The study is based on the
data from Agricultural Censuses of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia
e Estatística (IBGE) referring to the years of 1975 and 1995/96.
The study considers four classes of levels of labor productivity. The regions
in the upper class, containing the large cattle raising farms, show
a tendency to migrate, in the long run, to the lower classes. The reason
seems to be the reduction in the area of land available per unit of labor.
The lower class tends to maintain, in the long run, approximately the
same percentage of the total regions, which will not evolve in the level
of labor productivity, maybe because the farms are too small to get
mechanized, or do not change the production system to products that
aggregate more value, or do not adopt technological innovations.