Journal of Political Economy Vol. 133 No. 12 2025
Migration, Specialization, and Trade: Evidence from Brazil’s March to the West
Abstract
We study how migration shapes aggregate and regional comparative advantage, exploiting a large migration of farmers to Brazil’s West between 1950 and 2010. Migration allowed workers to sort according to their own comparative advantage, reallocating knowledge and raw labor to high-productivity regions. In a quantitative model, we find that migration cost reductions reshaped Brazil’s comparative advantage and contributed to its rise as a leading commodity exporter—accounting for 25% of the observed changes in specialization. Road expansions were key drivers of migration. Migration opportunities, moreover, account for a substantial share of the gains from trade.
- DOI
- 10.1086/738147
- Volume
- 133
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 3993-4049
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex semanticscholar crossref