Immigrants, skilled labor and industrialization: Rio and São Paulo in the beginning of the century

ABSTRACT The article examines the labor supply conditions for the industrial sector in Rio de Janeiro city and São Paulo state in the first two decades of this century, during which period São Paulo surpassed Rio as the leading industrial area of Brazil. It is shown that São Paulo had a comparative advantage over Rio in labor costs; the rural-urban wage differential. It is argued that this advantage can be related to the larger presence of immigrant workers in São Paulo industry; the ample supply of immigrant labor is thus seen as a major cause of the relative growth of São Paulo industrial production, in the period.