RCAAP Repository

O problema do desequilíbrio regional brasileiro normalmente tem sido tratado na literatura nacional a partir de investigações que utilizam a renda e/ou PIB per capita como variáveis de análise. Para sociedades com baixos níveis de desigualdade, esse procedimento é uma boa representação do bem-estar social. Entretanto, para economias com elevados níveis de pobreza e desigualdade, a utilização da renda ou PIB pode não ser apropriada. Nesse sentido, esse artigo discute se a aproximação da renda per capita existente entre o Nordeste e o Sudeste brasileiro também vem ocorrendo em termos de bem-estar social. Para esse objetivo, duas medidas de bem-estar social são utilizadas: Sen (1977) e Kakwani e Son (2008). Os resultados apontam que, assim como ocorre com a renda per capita, também está havendo aproximação de bemestar considerando a medida de Sen. Entretanto, quando se leva em conta o movimento da renda dos mais pobres, presente no segundo índice, constata-se um afastamento entre as duas regiões. As análises são feitas para o período de 1995 a 2007. Por fim, identificou-se que foram os ganhos de produtividade dos trabalhadores pertencentes a famílias pobres no Sudeste os principais responsáveis por esse distanciamento. or GDP cannot be appropriate. Accordingly, this article discusses if the approximation of per capita income between the Northeast and Southeast Brazil has also occurred in terms of social welfare. To this, two measures of social welfare are used: Sen (1977) and Kakwani e Son (2008). The results suggest as occurs with per capita income, there has also been assimilation of welfare, considering Sen’s proposal. However, when it is considered the movement of the poorest income, present in the second index, there is a distance between the two regions. The analyses are made for the period 1995 to 2007. Finally, it was identified that the productivity gains of workers belonging to poor families in the Southeast were the main responsible for this gap.

No summary/description provided

The main studies about convergence in Brazil have concentrated in the β-convergence analysis. The present article reexamines this issue using a methodology developed by Quah (1997) to analyze the evolution over time of the conditioned distribution of income among Brazilian states and municipalities between 1970 and 2000. Three kinds of estimation are done: a) kernel smoothed densities methods; b) estimation of stochastic kernels to analyze the movements of the economies over the income space with the aim to identify convergence clubs in specific space intervals; c)estimation of stochastic kernels conditional on geographic localization, education, openness to international trade and income inequality, with the objective to identify possible explanations to the observed pattern of convergence. The use of the methodologies above allowed us to identify a tendency of club formation in Brazil, as already identified by Mossi et all (2003) and Andrade et all (2004). Variables concerning geographical localization and level of education appeared as the main conditioner for this process.

Our objective is to study, in a labor market characterized by search frictions, the effect of technological progress on the average quality of job matches. For that, we use an extension of Mortensen and Pissarides (1998) and obtain as results that the effects of technological progress on the labor market depend upon the initial conditions of the economy. If the economy is totally characterized by the presence of low-quality job matches, an increase in technological progress is accompanied by an increase in the quality of jobs. In turn, if the economy is totally characterized by the presence of high-quality job matches, an increase in the technological progress rate implies the reverse effect. Finally,if the economy is totally characterized by the presence of very highquality jobs, an increase in the technological progress rate implies an increase in the average quality of the job matches.

No summary/description provided

This work to research the theory about enterprises financial, financial struture, risk of the borrower(enterprises) to repay the loan, credit of banks. In views of the optimal capital struture, credit analyses examines factors that may lead to default in the repayment of a loan. As for the risk management the general kinds of risks are described, particularly the credit risc and the credit concession models are evaluated. The risc models will have the financial demonstrations of interprises, here can be viewed as a signal, about the concept of asymmetric information. Thus, the signal to leave a nash equilibrium in this credit market. In the development of the statistic model, using the Logit Model because the problems of functional form of the linear probability model, the resíduos is heteroscedastic and not have normal distribuition. The discriminant analyse, probit e logit will be test. Another important point in this work is the decision model. This model have predtion of interest to improve the decision with the cutoff. Referring to the factorial analyse in the statistic of the independentes variable, the use of factorial analyses is not observations in the reference. Having this purpose in mind a statistic model was developed, using logit regression with factorial analyse in variable and linear programming. This project aims at evaluating the used models and proposing the adoption of new models, for the allowance for dobtful accounts, with the objetive of mensuring the risk related to customers financing and loan activities.

The first essay estimates a stochastic translog cost frontier function to Brazilian sanitation enterprises. We intent to verify the properties inherent to the technology production and to estimate the technical inefficiency level present in this industry. It is found the occurrence of decreasing return to scale and that household metering and expenses share on total costs constitute the key determinants of the sector's inefficiency. The second essay estimates residential water demand functions taking into account the block rate pricing schedule usually set by water utilities. The progressive pricing, although preserves the convexity property on the budget set, induces the consumer budget constraints be non-linear, what violates the classical assumption of heterogeneity of the explanatory variables required by the ordinary least squares method. An important conclusion is that price elasticity of water consumption is close to unitary. Finally, the third essay aims to set up the price-quantity pair that maximizes welfare in the basic sanitation, preserving finance sustainability in this sector. Technical constraints on systems of water and seweager make the sanitation enterprises operate under a monopoly regime. The solution to prevent the abuse of market power by this regime would be the price regulation by marginal cost, however, this solution does not guarantee finance sustainability. The main conclusion is that any scheme of tariff adjustment requires previously to take steps to reduce the high economic inefficiency observed in this industry.

This study investigated to advanced oxidation process (POA) for removal of organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos. Reactor system, in laboratory and pilot scale, have been studied. In the first stage, in laboratory scale, were performed studies of the parameters temperature, pH, dosage of hydrogen peroxide, pesticide concentration and inhibitory effects of anions. The results indicated that a temperature of 45 oC showed a better pesticide removal using only UV radiation, however, for the system UV/H2O2, the temperature did not affect the process. The pH effect was studied for H2O2 and UV/H2O2 systems and was observed that pH did not affect the efficiency of the system UV/H2O2. In addition, at pH 10 a better performance for the system H2O2 on the removal of pesticide was observed. Hydrogen peroxide dosage also was studied, and 1,5g/L dosage was most efficient in the pesticide removal. The inhibitory effect of the anions, such as chloride, nitrate, sulfate and bicarbonate was not significantive in the pesticide removal at a time of 480 minutes. In contrast, presence of carbonate anion at 60 minutes, there was a total transformation of chlorpyrifos in an unknown compound. The second stage was conducted on a pilot scale, and flow rate were studied (1.5; 2.0 and 3.0 L/min). The final concentration of pesticide at 480 minutes, for the three flow, were 0.30; 0.43 and 0.5 mg/L, respectively. The turbidity and color removal was efficient for all flows studied, in contrast with the DQO removal.

This thesis studies agricultural productivity both from an empirical and theoretical perspective. On the empirical side, a stochastic frontier is estimated for Brazilian states and the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology is employed for South American countries. Regarding the theoretical perspective, the impact of an increase on agricultural productivity upon economic growth and welfare is analyzed by means of an endogenous growth model. We conclude that agricultural productivity plays a major role in determining the growth rate of economies.

This paper analyses the effects of agricultural productivity gains on the industrialization process and on the long run growth rate of the economy. The model allows endogenous gains in agricultural productivity and, besides that, it is assumed that accumulated experience in the manufacture sector exerts a positive impact on agricultural productivity. The model shown that a necessary condition to the decline of industrial employment, due to comparative advantage in agriculture, is that the economy of the rest of world has poor industry/agriculture integration. Finally, it is also shown that interventionist can reverse specialization induced by initial comparative advantages.

In this paper we utilize the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA),a non-parametric method, to estimate measures of technical effici-ency of the Brazilian states in the generation of welfare between 1986 and 1998. The basic welfare measures considered include the measure developed by Sen and, alternatively, GDP per capita and the Human Development Index (HDI). Additionally, Theil’s inter and intra-regional income inequality measures are calculated so that the path of income inequality as determinant of welfare could also be analyzed for Brazil. Comparing these inequality measures in the beginning and in the end of the period in analysis,we note that only in the Northeast and in the Southeast was that inequality was significantly reduced. And, regarding the measures of efficiency in the generation of welfare, the model using Sen’s measures or GDP per capita indicate that the states of S˜ao Paulo,Rio Grande do Sul, Amazonas, Roraima, and Amap´a are the most efficient among all Brazilian states. When the HDI is considered,the same states are the most efficient with the exception of São Paulo.

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de apresentar a trajetória de uma pesquisa doutoral que examinou os meios e modos através dos quais duas instituições do Estado brasileiro oferecem aos cidadãos oportunidades de participação política empregando a Internet. Mais especificamente, o objetivo da investigação foi fazer uma análise detalhada das formas de uso dos media digitais testemunhadas nos portais da Presidência da República e a Câmara dos Deputados. Em um primeiro momento, os recursos participativos presentes nestas experiências foram inventariados; em seguida, os mecanismos identificados foram considerados quanto às suas características; por fim, estabeleceu-se uma análise qualitativa dos possíveis efeitos que a participação dos usuários gera sobre o processo de produção da decisão política. Concluiu-se que cada uma destas experiências lança mão dos canais digitais de participação de forma sensivelmente díspar, reforçando-se o diagnóstico de que mais importam os modos pelos quais os mecanismos digitais são efetivamente utilizados do que suas potencialidades latentes.

This paper focuses on the study and development of those institutional innovations conceived to promote participatory practices in contemporary democracies. In a first moment, one considers some of the main arguments addressing the scope, limits and the effects of the institutional design on the political game. Then, the article explores, through a brief history regarded the configuration modes of modern democracies, the relationship between institutional design and political participation. This fact calls the attention to the need of a change in the current institutional design of democracies. Finally, one proposes the idea that three features must be taken into account in any attempt to offer effective mechanisms of participation in the decision-making process: (a) to improve citizens’ repertoire of skills and political information; (b) to pay attention to motivational factors that encourage the involvement in politics; (c) to be careful about the setting and the availability of input channels whose goal is to lead the contributions of civil sphere.

Internet, participatory tools, and political effects: A study on the Brazilian case. This study examines the political effects that the participatory tools technically provided by the Internet can cause on the institutional decision-making process. Departing from the study of the features and uses of the participatory mechanisms found on the Brazilian House of Representatives website, one considers the limits of the effective influence that citizens are able to exert on the parliament members by using the new media. The research found out that despite the availability of assorted digital mechanisms focused on encouraging participation (e.g. e-mail, web forms, chat rooms, opinion polls, and public forums), users’ inputs are narrowed in this case to activities like debating or suggesting with no big consequences at all. One believes that this is so due to the ways how the traditional political game works, emphasizing a strict representative democracy.

This paper aims to examine how political conversations take place on the online forum offered as part of the Digital Participatory Budget (OPD) in a Brazilian city, Belo Horizonte. The authors propose an analytical model based on deliberative theories in order to investigate the discussions over this participatory program. The main sample consists of the messages posted by the users (n=357) on the commentaries section. The results show that reciprocity and reflexivity among interlocutors are rare; however, the respect among the interlocutors and the justification levels in several arguments were high during the discussion. The authors conclude that, even in a situation in which there is no empowerment offered by of the digital tools, the internet can effectively provide environments to enhance a qualified discursive exchange. In spite of low levels of deliberativeness, the case study shows that there are important gains concerning social learning among the participants.

MARQUES, Francisco Paulo Jamil Almeida. Sobre a comunicação político-partidária na Internet: um estudo dos informativos digitais do PT e do PSDB. Revista Galáxia, São Paulo, n.10, 2005, p. 129-146

MARQUES, Francisco Paulo Jamil Almeida; MIOLA, Edna. Internet e Parlamento: um estudo dos mecanismos de participação oferecidos pelo Poder Legislativo através de ferramentas online. E-Compós, Brasília, v. 9, 2007, p. 1-20

One of the most relevant discussions on bank regulation is the dichotomy between liberalization, with higher competition, and financial stability. To investigate this problem, the article examines competitive conditions and risk taking in Brazilian banks, and investigates their relationship. Competition is measured using Panzar & Rosse model and risk taking by Basel Brazilian Index.Given the relevance of the discussion, we use the concentration index as a measure of market structure. It is shown that Brazilian banks operate in monopolist competition and that competition increases risk taking.

A debt contract usually does not include a provision about renegotiation. The right to seize the borrower’s asset and the rules of this process are usually stipulated in the contract. Such a promise not to renegotiate is not credible since renegotiation can mitigate the dead-weight loss of liquidating insolvent borrowers. Once the initial contract may not consider the renegotiation procedure and renegotiation may occur, this paper investigates why a complete contract is not offered. It shows that the lender does not need to stipulate the renegotiation procedure on the initial contract because he is indifferent about committing or not to the terms of a contract. This indicates that a complete contract gives the lender the same expected return as an incomplete contract, in which the renegotiation process is determined after the occurrence of default.

This article analyzes the conservative behavior of public financial institutions’ treasuries, which incur a trade-off for prioritizing their development-related activities instead of their funds management. Using the capital asset pricing model (CAPM),evidence from the Northeast Bank of Brazil, the largest regional development bank in Latin America, suggests that changes in the institutions, as well as in the legislation that restricts their investment policy, are feasible.