INFLATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN IMPERIAL BRAZIL (1824-1889)

Thales Zamberlan Pereira
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Thales Zamberlan Pereira: São Paulo School of Economics / FGV

No y5fnp_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Drawing on 20,000 monthly quotations, this study revises imperial Brazil's inflation and living standards estimates. The new price index eliminates the nineteenth-century ‘low-growth puzzle’: Brazil’s GDP per capita rose in line with the Latin-American average. Earlier series, which relied on baskets disproportionately weighted toward agricultural goods or whose composition varied over time, display continuous growth and overstate inflation by 57–270%. The revised index reveals a sharp rise in the 1850s and stability thereafter. New evidence on exchange and freight rates, terms of trade, regional commerce, and real wages shows that regional specialization in food production helped stabilize prices after the mid-century.

Date: 2025-05-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-mon
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:y5fnp_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/y5fnp_v1

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