Repositório RCAAP

A ideia de deliberação pública vem se mostrando uma das mais proeminentes em Teoria Democrática nos últimos anos. Desde a confluência entre alguns dos princípios da Filosofia de Jürgen Habermas (2003) e de John Rawls (1999), até o lançamento das obras pioneiras para o desenvolvimento do deliberacionismo, alega-se que o modelo discursivo se coloca como alternativa voltada para lidar com os problemas teóricos e práticos não resolvidos de forma satisfatória pelas tradições Liberal e Republicana (Benhabib, 1996; Bohman, 1996; Gutmann e Thompson, 1996 e 2004; Dryzek, 2000). Não que a vertente deliberativa rejeite os pressupostos destas concepções anteriores; na verdade, os investigadores ligados ao modelo discursivo rearticulam muitas das contribuições clássicas em uma tentativa de responder a reivindicações crescentes (como maior permeabilidade à participação política da esfera civil; transparência no trato dos assuntos públicos; administração mais adequada dos conflitos que marcam as democracias plurais e multiculturais contemporâneas) que recaem sobre os processos institucionais de produção da decisão política...

The motivation of this article bases on the controversy in the recent literature about economic growth, sustainable development and environmental protection, started with the empirical evidences presented by Grossman and Krueger (1995, 1996), where the relationship between per capita GDP and emission of pollutants takes the shape of an inverted–U, denominated in the literature as Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC). This article differs from others by contributing with further explanation stemming from economic development indicators. Despite being contested by many authors, several structural interpretations of EKC have been strongly sustained under ad hoc shield. The concern about such stylized fact is whether or not the economic growth itself generates an automatic protection to the environment, consequently to the maintainable development. Based upon panel data for countries, it is verified that the variables that denote sustainable economic development present a weak relationship with per capita GDP to support an EKC representation. There are also evidences for environmental curves in cubic format, which means rejection of EKC, besides most of the development indicators pointing out for divergences among countries.

This paper focuses on the economic determinants that contribute to the formation of the prices of the real estate market of the city of Fortaleza (Ceará), based upon the hedonic or implicit prices theory. The model considered for the work investigates implicit prices in the curve of utility of an agent of demand segmented in two groups: direct consumer of the good house and the investor in properties, that it incorporate economical financial additionally that measure the degree of risk and return in the formation of the hedonic prices. It is estimated the hedonic prices through segmentation by type of property taking into account several attributes distributed in the vectors of physical, location, economical and financial characteristics. The selected sample is formed by the real estate transactions occurred in the city (period from 1995 to 2003), accounting for 4.467 observations distributed among residential apartments, flats, urban lands and commercial offices.

In this paper we consider compact oriented hypersurfacesMwith constant mean curvature and two principal curvatures immersed in the Euclidean sphere. In the minimal case, Perdomo (Perdomo 2004) andWang (Wang 2003) obtained an integral inequality involving the square of the norm of the second fundamental form of M, where equality holds only if M is the Clifford torus. In this paper, using the traceless second fundamental form of M, we extend the above integral formula to hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature and give a new characterization of the H(r)-torus.

This paper shows how to construct quality adjusted price indices without direct observation of productlevel data (prices, quantities and characteristics). The technique used here allows for a welfare based measurement of price change using commonly available (at least for the manufacturing sector) plant–level data on revenue and cost. However, one has to be explicit about the evolution of the outside good quality and the structure of demand and supply. Using data on the Colombian beer industry and combining the methodologies originally proposed by Katayama, Lu and Tybout (2003), DeSouza (2006a) and Trajtenberg (1990) I am able to uncover the demand parameters and build welfare-based price indices for the 1977-1990 period.

The thesis entitled "Econometrical assays on the dynamics of the agricultural Gdp" is composed of three papers. The first article is entitled "Brazilian Agricultural Sector: An Analysis of Microregional Convergence" analyzes the process of agricultural micro regional convergence using the Threshold Model in the period 1970 to 1996. The results show the existence of five clubs of convergence: one with a group of richer micro regions; one with a group of poor micro regions and three intermediates groups. The results also show that physical capital is more important than human capital in the explanation of the growth process. The second paper with title "The Brazilian Agricultural Sector: A Application of the Model of Common Cycles in the period os 1990 the 2005" analyzes the behavior of Agricultural Gdp, real exchange rate and the current account balance agricultural in Brazil during the period of 1990 to 2005. Cointegration techniques were used to identify a VAR system with common stochastic trends, and to investigate the system responses to transitories and permanent shocks. The tests had proven the existence of a common trend and two cycles between the variables. Variance decompositions indicates that transiotories shocks accont form most of the short and long run fluctuations in agricultural Gdp. It was found that permanent shocks explain most of the variance of the exchance rate and of the current account balance mainly in the long run. The third paper entitled "Forecast of the Rate of Growth of the Brazilian Agricultural Gdp: An Application of Models of Diffusion Index Linear and Non-Linear". This article applies the linear and non-linear diffusion index model with a threshold effect to forecast, one step ahead, the qyarterly growt rate of Brazilian Agricultural Gdp. These models are composed by common factor which allow a significant reduction in the number of the original explaining variables. After comparing forecast of these two models between themselves and to an AR model, used as benchmark, one comes to the conclusion that the linear model presents a small superiority, in terms of predictive efficiency, in relation to the nonlinear and AR models.

This study examines the existence of nonlinearities on the relationships between inflation,economic growth and the relative prices variability (RPV) in Brazil. It also assesses the effects of the Brazilian stabilization program, known as “Plano Real”, on the relationship between inflation and economic performance. The analysis employs time series models that allows threshold effects (for analysis of relationship between inflation and economic growth; and inflation and RPV) and panel data models that allows threshold effects and structural break (on the analysis for relationship between inflation and economic growth). Considering the relation between inflation and growth, the results shows that relationship between inflation and economic growth would be negative only above a certain level of inflation, which confirms the findings of some empirical studies of economic literature. The results also show change evidences in relation between inflation and economic growth after “Plano Real”,probably because of changes in economy promoted by this policy. As for the relation between inflation and RPV in Brazil, the findings indicate that inflation would have a positive relationship with the RPV. However, this relationship shows a nonlinear behavioral standard in the sense that this would be more positive and significant above a certain level of inflation.

The present thesis consists of three empirical essays on productivity and economic growth in different samples of countries. It addresses aspects related to the accumulation of factors and technological progress in an attempt to account for observed rates of expansion and differences in per capita product levels. Special attention is given to the mecanisms through which human capital acts upon the growth process. The countries’ aggregated productivity was quantified and their respective performances were compared through stochastic production frontier analysis – a method which, unlike traditional methods and aided by the Malmqüist Index, relaxes the technical efficiency hypothesis and thereby allows to separate the effects caused by gains in technological progress (displacement of the frontier) from the effects produced by enhanced efficiency (catching up with the frontier), thus contributing to our understanding of the economic reasons for differences in productivity. Moreover, the effects of technical inefficiency were modeled using the latest developments in stochastic production frontier analysis.

The present study uses linear and non-linear diffusion index models to produce one-step-ahead forecast of quarterly Brazilian GDP growth rate. Diffusion index models are like dynamic factors models. These factors are latent variables that represent a common property from the explanatory variables, then allowing a considerably reduction of its number in econometric models elaborated to attend the main objective of this work. The non-linear diffusion index models used in this thesis are not only parsimonious ones, but also they try to capture economic cycles using for this goal a Threshold diffusion index model and a Markov-Switching diffusion index model. The former is used, besides for forecasting purpose, also to test if there is a non-linear pattern in the quarterly Brazilian GDP growth rate.

The imbalance between well-being measures and productive capacity of the Brazilian states, in the period between 1986 and 1998, is investigated in this work. The study is composed three assays with distinct objectives and methodology. Inicially, measures of efficiency in the well-being generation are stimated using the methodology know as data envolpment analysis - DEA. After this, with use of panel data, the relation between the relative endowment of production factors, economic opening and the inequality in the distribution of the income was investigated. Finally, from the definition of measure of poverty incidence, the effect of the economic growth and the reduction of the inaquality on the poverty are estimated. Between the main results, it was verified that the inefficiency in distributing income is bigger of the one than the productive inefficiency of the Brazilian states. However, in average, the efficiency in generating well-being increased in the amostral period. It was esteem existence of negative relation between endowment of human capital and economic opening with the concentration of the income. How much to the poverty, elasticities had been esteem income-poverty and concentration-poverty. It was verified that the elasticity concentration-poverty is bigger of the one than the elasticity income-poverty. Moreover, the elasticity income-poverty increases with the desconcentração of the income and the elasticity concentration-poverty is increasing in relation to the income level.

This article examines specific questions about democracy and digital technologies of communication. The paper begins presenting the notion of public sphere as a guide to evaluate the possibilities of a virtual version of this discursive space. Then, it discusses certain arguments offered by authors for and against the notion of virtual public sphere. Such arguments give the necessary background to develop the proposal of virtual public sphere neither as a genuine discursive space nor as a space that refuses the requisites of a normative public sphere. In other words, this paper defends that most of the discursive spaces found in the internet act in a more efficient way as places dedicated to what is called civic conversation. Most of the debates in lists and online forums serve as a way to improve the given and take of opinions. The conclusion considers that democracy has through the internet an alternative way to foster citizen’s participation.

Marques, Francisco Paulo Jamil Almeida. Internet e oportunidades de participação política: um exame dos websites de senadores brasileiros e norte-americanos. Revista Fronteiras, Estudos Midiáticos, São Leopoldo(RS), v.9, n.3,2007, p. 155-166

The paper investigates two forms of deliberation identified in the literature on democratic theory. the first one is limited considering how many people are involved in the discussions (the mini-publics are the best example in this case). the second form is enlarged: its deliberations include informal discussions and the mass media debates as well. After exploring theoretically these two dimensions, this paper presents the idea of integrated deliberation. Such a perspective seeks to benefit from the practical advantages found in the two discursive forms mentioned above. the paper examines some cases in order to illustrate instances in which the exchange of reasons in large and restricted environments end up generating a confluence that facilitates citizens’ participation in the decision-making process.

The article examines the difficulties faced by government projects aimed at fostering citizens’ political participation by using the Internet. After presenting the participatory tools found on two institutional websites (the Brazilian Presidency and the House of Representatives), I examine how the constraints pointed out by a relevant part of the literature in e-participation are reflected on such initiatives. The discussion grounded on empirical evidences highlights the argument that promoting online participation needs more than providing communication resources, since civic culture and other issues are still key factors in influencing our patterns of political involvement. A participatory use of digital tools will then depend more on circumstances such as institutional willingness than on the technical mechanisms available.

The use of panel data in economic studies becomes increasingly constant, because it has more advantages than pure medium cross-section or pure time series. Thus obtain more efficient econometric estimates. Another important point arises from the possibility to isolate the effects of specific actions, treatments or policies in General. In this sense, this study seeks to examine three cases in the Brazilian economy using state data in the pane. In chapter I, to examine the existence of market integration Brazilian wholesaler, tomato using a dynamic Panel that allows effects thresholds (threshold) to test the hypothesis that the market convergence to the law of one price. The results support the hypothesis of integration between the main tomato and Brazilian markets in this process there is empirical evidence of transaction costs. In chapter II seeks to analyze the sustainability of the debt of Brazilian States after implementation of the law of fiscal responsibility (LRF) through fiscal response function of Government, this methodology developed by Bohn (2006). To this end, it was estimated econometric model for data on Panel with annual data for the period 2000-2008 for the stock of net debt and spending and revenue streams. The results show that the Brazilian States do not respond as expected to keep their debts sustainable. In chapter III, sought to analyse the effects of economic growth, inequality and the Bolsa Familia program (PBF) in poverty rates in Brazil. This was a model of dynamic Panel, estimated by the generalized method of moments for two-pass system, developed by Blundel-Bond (1998). The results show that spending on the bolsa família did not, in any of the models examined, impact on poverty. It was found that the average family income rises per capita as the reduction of inequality are statistically significant in combating poverty, whether in the proportion of poor or indigent ratio and that economic growth policies that promote increased income together with the reduction of their disparities are preferable to economic growth policies that favor simply increased incomes average in combating poverty in Brazil.

This article investigates how two Brazilian political institutions - The Presidency and The House of Representatives - use the Internet to offer citizens opportunities of political participation. After reviewing part of the relevant literature concerning Internet and Democracy, the paper identifies and describes all the participatory mechanisms available at these websites, proposing further reflections on the political effects which may arise once these channels are employed. Comparing the House of Representatives and the Presidency websites, it is possible to affirm that the former one presents a greater variety of channels able to address participatory politics. The interactive patterns established between citizens and representatives are thus quite different in this case. The article also discusses questions such as representatives’ unwillingness to offer participatory tools, once these mechanisms are costly to implement and may imply a lost of political power. In the end, one reinforces the necessity of thinking on the digital media taking into account the cultural and political contexts of every democratic society.

This article examines the discursive characteristics of a TV debate between Leonardo Quintão (PMDB) and Márcio Lacerda (PSB) aired during the 2008 race for Belo Horizonte City Mayor. The study analyzed if and how the discursive practices observed in such a debate meet the five requirements suggested by Maia (2007) for evaluating the nature of a deliberative debate. The requirements are the following: accessibility; characterization of social actors; use of critical-rational arguments; reciprocity and responsiveness; reversibility of point of views. The research found out that TV political debates limit by their very nature the development of deep arguments. In addition, one points out evidences prone to reinforce the belief that these debates exert influence over other formal and informal arenas of discussion, what makes consistent the idea of an expanded deliberative system.

O presente trabalho constitui uma reflexão acerca da importância de se oferecerem oportunidades institucionais de participação política aos cidadãos a fim de se consolidar o regime democrático de governo. Argumenta-se que a participação é indispensável para a consecução de duas metas: a) Conferir maior legitimidade ao regime e às decisões elaboradas em seu âmbito. Discute-se o argumento sobre como a carência de oportunidades de participação acaba por tornar os cidadãos apáticos e insatisfeitos com a democracia. Considera-se, então, a necessidade de promover mecanismos de intervenção mais fortes e frequentes para a esfera civil; b) Implementar as políticas públicas de maneira mais efetiva. A participação possui uma faceta instrumental, por possibilitar uma melhor qualidade na formulação, implementação e efetividade das decisões políticas e programas governamentais. Assim, no texto, defende-se a adoção de novos dispositivos participativos institucionais por meio da demonstração de suas vantagens.

This paper examines the difficulties faced by government projects aimed at fostering citizens’ political participation by using the Internet. After presenting the participatory tools found on two institutional Web sites (the Brazilian Presidency and the House of Representatives), I examine how the constraints pointed out by a relevant part of the literature in e–participation are reflected in such initiatives. Promoting online participation needs more than providing communication resources, since civic culture and other issues are still key factors in influencing our patterns of political involvement. A participatory use of digital tools depends more on circumstances, such as institutional willingness, than on technical mechanisms available.

This study examines the opportunities of political participation offered by institutions of the Brazilian state to the citizens through digital communication. First, different perspectives in democratic theory are presented to address the question of citizens’ political participation; later, one reflects on the importance of citizens' participation as a factor for legitimizing contemporary democracies. Once one realizes the separation between citizens and representatives' political role, the thesis discusses the need for reform in certain points of institutional design of the democratic state. This reform is necessary in order to redefine the manner in which citizens participate in the political world. This work then proposes the adoption of participatory mechanisms able to provide information, motivation and channels of political influence for citizens in the political realm. The mass media are key in the process via highlighting important values associated with democracy as well as promoting decision-making processes that encourage citizens' participation. When looking specifically at the role of the Internet in democracy, this thesis argues that it is necessary to provide ways to correct certain problems in democracy; therefore, one details a model for resources that will encourage participation in the digital environment. Further, the thesis examines how the Brazilian House of Representatives and the Brazilian Presidency employ digital mechanisms to improve citizen's political involvement. The main factors affecting the willingness of these institutions to use the digital tools and the consequences that may arise from those already used are examined. The thesis concludes that the digital media should be used in order to help resolve some difficulties afflicting the contemporary democratic process. The development and adoption of digital mechanisms for participation, although encouraged, must be seen as only one part of a broader project to incorporate citizens in political environment.