Frontier Development as Job Creation — With Social Costs

Abstract

Brazil, like every other land-based nation in the Western Hemisphere, has a frontier. It is not unreasonable to posit that the presence of a frontier has some effect on economic growth. Frontiers provide land, which is a form of capital. They provide mineral extractive sources that can be developed. They stimulate migration. This development is not cost free. The damage done by frontier openings to the environment and to indigenous populations is well known and of concern. However, the opening up of interior lands has some effect on economic growth, although the size of this effect has never been precisely estimated. If the effects of opening the frontier were small, it would make the ecological damage associated with this process indefensible. If the benefits of opening the frontier were substantial, this could pose significant moral and policy questions about the trade-offs between the elimination of poverty and the preservation of the environment.