Frontiers and economic institutions in Brazil: an approach focused on the new institutional economics

Abstract

The present article seeks to discuss the meaning (s) of frontiers in Brazil and the role of institutions in the process of economic development through the new institutional economics. Any pattern of collective behavior characterizes an institution, and as such determines the “rules of the game”. The frontier represents a socio-economic relationship of production because the structure of society in building a frontier is dominated (in)directly by capital. In Brazil, the movement to occupy land on the frontier does not usually occur through contingent smallholders, but rather through a mixture of different social segments, such as: migrants, “landless” males, farmers and entrepreneurs, all seeking land to occupy, to produce and to speculate. The main conclusion is that a developed institutional system may help to promote economic development by structuring the surrounding environment and stimulating the process of cooperation, innovation and learning in the frontier regions of Brazil.