Infant Mortality Trends and Capitalist Development in Brazil: the Case of Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte

Abstract

doing research on mortality and on migration to the Amazon.In 1964 the Brazilian Armed Forces seized power from the constitutionally elected President Joao Goulart. The end of civilian control marked the beginning of a series of aggressive economic policies designed to control inflation and to stimulate economic growth.' These measures contributed to the socalled Brazilian &dquo;economic miracle&dquo; in which the rate of increase in the real GDP rose to an average of about ten percent per year between 1969 and 1972. Among the policies adopted in the post-1964 period was the strategy of severely curtailing the power of labor unions as independent bargaining agents, and of consistently lagging wage increases behind rises in the cost of living. To keep labor costs low, the legal minimum wage was revised at regular intervals on the basis of elaborate mathematical formulations. While these readjustments were putatively intended to recover lost income eroded by inflation, the method was deliberately designed to provide less than full compensation (see DIESSE, 1974;. The consequent decline in the real minimum wage meant a deterioration in the standard of living for a large sector of the population. This study investigates the social consequences of the pattern of recent Brazilian economic growth by analyzing the relationship between the decline in real wages and the upsurge in infant mortality rates in two of the country's most important urban centers.' Sao Paulo, with a population of eight million in 1970, is the largest city in Brazil, and Belo Horizonte, with close to two million inhabitants, ranks third. The scope of the analysis is restricted to these two 'For a discussion of these policies and the political context within which they took place, see Baer and Kerstenetzky (1972( ), Schmitter (1973, Skidmore (1973), and Singer (1972). 2 Other studies have suggested that the rise in infant deaths was caused by a decline in a real minimum wage (see Suplicy, 1974; Singer, 1974; Hoffman, 1971; Yunes andRonchezel, 1974 andBacha, 1976), but this association has not been systematically analyzed so as to account for other variables that could interfere with the relationship.

Las consecuencias demográficas de la austeridad en América Latina : aspectos metodológicos

“…Desempleo, ingresos bajos, desnutrición e índices de mortalidad infantil elevados son parte de la realidad de todos los días aun en periodos de crecimiento económico. El índice de mortalidad infantil de 10% mencionado en Follia de sao Paulo es sin duda alto, pero no significa que haya aumentado recientemente, si tenemos en cuenta que la mortalidad infantil en Belo Horizonte [no sólo en .las favelas) a principios de los años setenta, culminación del "milagro económico" brasileño, tuvo índices del orden de 125 por 1 000 [Wood, 1977). Así también, la desnutrición es un problema serio en muchas partes de América Latina, pero las series de datos son muy escasos para demostrar que el fenómeno se debe realmente a la crisis de la deuda.…”

“…Una circunstancia curiosa es que las tendencias de la mortalidad infantil en Brasil a partir de los años sesenta, analizadas en periodos de varios años, muestran un esquema contra-cíclico con respecto al crecimiento económico. Aunque la evidencia no es completamente concluyente, existen fuertes indicaciones acerca de que la mortalidad infantil en los centros urbanos más importantes aumentó durante el periodo de rápido desarrollo de 1968-1973. Entre otros factores, este incremento se ha atribuido al deterioro del salario legal mínimo y a la insuficiencia de los proyectos de higiene pública para ir al mismo paso del crecimiento migratorio en la periferia urbana (Wood, 1977). Las autoridades percibieron la necesidad de que hubiera más inversiones en los programas sociales y de higiene pública.…”

Accumulation in the world economy and the international division of labour

“…Brazil has a particularly repressive social-political regime which utilizes torture as part of its daily political activity. The standard of living of the majority of the Brazilian people has remained stagnant and for many has probably declined (Hewlett, 1975;Serra, 1973;Marini, 1972;and Wood, 1977). The inequalities and injustices characteristic of Brazil have increased.…”

Democracy at Work: Moving Beyond Elections to Improve Well-Being

“… 5 Wood (1977) presents evidence that infant mortality increased from 1964 to 1974, at least in several large cities. This suggests that the military dictatorship harmed Brazil's health care performance in both relative and absolute terms. …”