RCAAP Repository

The present work has the Minas Gerais especialization pattern of exportations as study object and it has as general objective analyze the more dinamic productive sectors of Minas Gerais State, as well to understand the composition of the Minas Gerais exportation guideline, in the phase of commercial opening, according to some statistics of the competitiveness and the Pavitt tipology (tecnolgical exportations intensity). The results ratify the general hypothesis of this work, which is the predominancy of exportation sectors based on natural resources in the guideline mencioned. Thus, observing the factorial intensity of the Minas Gerais State exportations, we perceive that the specialized international sectors commercial sectors deal just with tradicional (and not dynamic) comparative advantagens. Moreover, analyzing the tecnolgical exportations intensity, we observe that, in the context of commercial opening, there have not been changing exportations pattern for more intensive sectors in technology. In another terms, the inovations search by P&D increments didn t occurred, at least of intense form, at the Minas Gerais economy exportations level.

Since 1980 s decade, it can be observed the beginning of an economic and politics territorialization process, concomitant with the apparent central government weakness. This process matches with the changes that companies and State have been passing through in world-wide scope. The stage of the productive globalization, that involves the period between 1950 and 1970, allowed the growth of industrial capacities in a wide gamma of developing countries. Such industrial diffusion caused a change in many manufacturing industries gravity center from the world-economy core to its periphery. This change was the premise for commercial globalization (since 1970). Moreover, in middle 1980 s emerged an effective innovations concentration based on the electronics, which reached, directly or indirectly, all economics sectors and, also, the society as a whole. This configures thus a new technological-productive paradigm. This paradigm is characterized, among others things, for the increasing presence of the microelectronics. That makes possible a greater production and work relations flexibility, and also favors the customized production, carried through smaller lots and droved to more or less specific market segments. The information technologies application allowed product decomposition in modules or systems with normalized interfaces. This facilitates contracts of external projects. The transnational corporations vertical disintegration is characterized by its central abilities redefinition by focusing in product innovation and strategy, marketing and in other segments that add more value in manufacture and services, while these corporations reduce their direct property on not central functions, such as generic services and production volume. This is a trend in the majority of developed countries, which becomes each time more likely the emergence of clearly buyers commanded chains. In short, in this new way of productive organization, the inter-firms bonds are contemplated by technological development, as well as by companies interest on concentrating efforts on activities that constitute their operational focus and on transferring the others activities to other production units. This context favors deeper participation small and medium firms in industrial dynamics, mostly those which are inserted in specialized productive agglomerations. Such situation calls attention of many researchers in the 1980 s, and policy makers since 1990 s had also started showing interest on this subject. This is the scene in which the current work intends to catch the buyers commanded chains emergence in wooden furniture industry and it also intends to analyze this chain type influence on specialized productive agglomerations. To fulfill this object São Bento do Sul (SC) productive agglomeration s concrete experience has been observed.

The idea of International Division of Labor (IDL) came along with the diffusion of the capitalism as production way. However, had a IDL background in the block of socialist countries that if it organized since the scope of the Council for the Economic Mutual Assistance (CMEA). Throughout the decades where the CMEA was effective, the countries that were part of the Council had created an important scene of interdependences uncountable to the exchanges of merchandises and services, economic control, promotion of cooperation institutions and specialization, and an infrastructure in which if they supported the economic relations between the members. However, chain instead of net interdependences no if show mature and solid to resist, without being damaged, to the re-approach with the capitalist countries, from the Seventies and to the collapse of the real socialism in the Nineties. Concerning this aspect, we believe that the referring limitations to the CMEA have origin in the historical and structural formation of the proper Council. Thus, this work aims to analyze the trajectory of four decades of existence of the CMEA (1949-1991) from its beddings and proper structures of functioning and to point elements that can have contributed for the process of weakness and posterior dissolution of the Council.

With the objective of improving their market image and, consequently, the demand for its shares, companies use Corporate Governance practices as a way to increase the consistency of the financial statements and as a guarantee of respect to the minorities shareholders rights. In the last three years, the increase in the number of corporations that performed an IPO in Brazil, has boosted the search to implement Corporate Governance practices in not open capital companies who intend to open their capital. The standard Corporate Governance structure to perform an IPO operation in the new segments of the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA) assumes the adoption of practices that, among other characteristics, increase the company disclosure and the strictness in dealing with account and tax issues that can affect their results. Those effects are taken in consideration during the process of the IPO go - no go -decision. In this sense, the objective of the research was to analyze, comparatively to the North-American case, if the structure of the Brazilian tax system has characteristics that motivates or not the IPO decision in the new corporate governance situation. Beyond those features that can have direct effects to the management of results by the companies, the research studied tax and legal aspects that could have indirect influence in the IPO decision, as it stimulates the investment in the stock market and the growing of the capital market. The main motivation for this research was to make clear the challenges that the adoption of the standard corporate governance structure can bring to the companies, in terms of the treatment of its fiscal and tax issues, and its impacts in the IPO decision.

The main objective of this essay is to analyze critically the ECLAC s scientific production in the post-1980 decades, the so called New ECLAC. The hypothesis here undertaken is: after the changes suffered by ECLAC, that institution can no longer be placed side by side with the ones who seeks for real alternatives to the Neoliberalism the hegemonic development strategy of nowadays. Looking specifically to the welfare economics and social policies issues, it is argued that Neoliberalism and the ECLAC became closer perspectives and started to share the same world view. This dissertation seeks to clarify the debate over the real development alternatives for Latin American economies.

The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze Latin American experiences with flexible exchange rate and inflation target in order to understand the behavior of the exchange rate and inflation in a model with monetary characteristics. The volatility analysis suggests an increase in exchange rate volatility (except for Colombia) and a decrease in inflation volatility (except for Brazil). It can be said that the reduction in inflation volatility seems to be associated to the adoption of an inflation target regime where the interest rate policy, given the fear of inflation, is an important instrument to match such lower volatility. The VAR estimation uses the impulse-response function (IRF) and the variance decomposition analysis (VDA) for the exchange rate and inflation. It suggests for the exchange rate dynamics that: inflation and interest rates have some relevance in explaining exchange rate changes for Brazil and Chile, but for all countries the relative participation of these variables is small in explaining exchange rate movements; international reserves and monetary base seems to have a higher relevance in explaining exchange rate dynamics for Brazil and Chile. Inflation dynamics explanation for Brazil and Chile is directly associated to changes in the exchange rate; the inflation response to interest rate is not significant for Chile, Mexico and Brazil; and the Mexican inflation seems to be explained by specific elements of monetary policy such as the interest rate and the monetary base.

This research analyzes the Brazilian exchange rate system and the exchange rate interventions after flexible exchange rate system implementation in 1999, and have like base the "fear of floating" approach, the exchange rate interventions theory and of the fact exchange rate classification. The evidences found for Brazil suggest that the exchange rate interventions illustrate objectives of the exchange rate debt reduction and do not follow the "fear of floating objectives". In the others empirical tests find a weak short run relation between exchange rate and domestic interest rate, exchange rate backups, domestic inflation and public debt in proportion to the GDP, and a strong short run relation between exchange rate and country risk, indicating that the movements of the exchange rate do not affect heavy the variables of the "fear of floating" and that do not believe that the country suffer from that problem. Confirming that idea, finds that of the fact exchange rate system is compatible with the jure exchange rate system, despite it find low exchange rate flexibility.

The National Program for the Development of Familiar Agriculture (PRONAF) has brought an advance in terms of increasing the access and inclusion of familiar farmers regarding the formal agricultural credit, which was directed mainly for bigger farmers. During PRONAF early years, one observed that resources were concentrated both in the Brazilian regions of Southeastern and South and in familiar farmers already integrated to the agricultural market. Recently, some changes would modify theoretically the program profile, with resources being directed to a bigger number of lacking farmers. Besides, these changes encouraged the local development and incorporated the debate on the Territorial Development Paradigm . In this regard, this dissertation aims to verify the logic of the recent resource distribution of PRONAF main modalities, Credit and Infrastructure, by evaluating the profile of familiar farmers and agricultural localities that received them in the Northeast and South of Brazil. For that, we studied the inclusion criteria of familiar farmers and cities that collect these modality resources most. Next, based on the paper of Kageyama (2004), an Index of Rural Development was calculated to evaluate the economic development, social welfare and environment, population issues in these municipalities. Through statistical data analysis, we tried to verify if, even with the recent changes the legislation, PRONAF still follows the concentrative logic of resources defined according to the banking system requirements; that is, if the concentrative logic of other funding lines of the National System Agricultural Credit has prevailed.

Mestre em Economia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais

This work aims to theoretically highlight how the Solidarity Economics having as a mediation term the Social Capital can constitute in a powerful strategy of territorial development. The Solidarity Economy is based on a set of economic and social activities which recovers the solidarity sense, gift, and cooperation, trying to reinsert the economics in the set of other social practices. Public policies oriented towards the Solidararity Economics can constitute important instruments of territorial development if they are able to stimulate the generation of a set of rules and values, with tends to create confidence links resulting and facilitating the achievement of common goals, creating identities and even respecting the structure power that defines the territories and their limits, recognize the alterity, so they are allowed to establish new horizontal relations that are able to produce changes on peoples capacity to promote their full development and improve their life conditions.

The contemporanity is marked by transformations in the structure of the world-wide capitalism, for the expansion of the integration of the markets, for transformations in the technique, the existence of an only hegemonic country and amongst other characteristics, also for the destruction of what existed and was called real socialism . It is the exactly context that proliferates, in the most diverse shades of thought, different interpretations of this reality, that is, the world-wide capitalist system. Thus terms like globalization and neoliberalism appear together many others trying to give some form, make possible the interpretation and the knowledge of this reality, in its various aspects. This work, since a marxist theoretical reference, investigates the characteristics of the world-wide economy in the contemporanity, searching, recoup diverse contributions made for authors who have marxist theory as reference, for help in the development of this important shade of interpretation of the reality, and, from this theoretical recovery, help to understand the contemporanity of the capitalist system. In such a way this work opposes the dominant thesis which affirms that the present time would be a new stage in the capitalism, the globalization. Stage that would be marked by a supreme evolution, without precedents, with new characteristics, that would be expressed through the expansion of the opportunities, of the dissolution of the differences, of the nationalities, and the negation of the imperialist stage. Therefore, what can be perceived through the analysis and the raised data, is that in contrast of the panacea promoted by the multilateral institutions, world-wide capitalist economy is marked today by the deepening of the proper capitalism logic, that is not different of that which reigned in the principle of the last century. Of this form, it is pointed that the globalization that would reign today could be understood as the globalization of the inherent trends of the capitalism itself, what makes the cyclical changes of the capital happen as form that it finds to defend its profit rates. The raised empirical hypothesis which was pursued theoretically is that not have a radical change in the structure and the dominant logic of the world-wide economy, today is a continuity, in truth, a deepening of the imperialist age.

The list of Brazilian exports products remains concentrated, since the beginning of the formation of nation, in commodities primary, intensive work and natural resources products and low content of technology, while, their imports are concentrated on products with high and medium intensity of technology. Thus, Brazil has a structural dependence profile for those exports as motor primus of national economic dynamics and a strong dependence of foreign technology. These dependencies are aggravated by the historical deficit in currents account and by the deepening of economy denationalization, which determine the need to refer profits, dividends, royalties and licenses, and to pay interest of loans to the outside, corroding, thus, a great part of currency generated by exports. The data presented in this work allow to note that in Brazil there is not a trend of reprimarization, because, actually, the dependence relation with primary products has not yet been broken.

In the light of a broad discussion about the negotiations of collective work in Brazil and the movement of the introduction and expansion of the automobile industry in the country, in this dissertation we examine the course of collective negotiation in our part of an automobile plant established in the city of Catalão, in the State of Goiás. This study shows how the process of collective negotiation started and how it was carried out on a greenfield, that is, a region with no manufacturing tradition. The research is a case study limited mainly to reveal new facts, namely: (i) The emergence of a local union led to a greater commitment to the employees of the automotive sector in Catalão? (ii) What were the main influences on the completion of the first Collective Agreement between the labor union and the company? (iii) What were the changes within the thematic scope of collective instruments before and after the imposition of a local union? What does the history of negotiations between the union and the company reveal in relation to the thematic scope of the agreements? Did the Collective Negotiations between the labor union and the company managed to create additional rules regarding the extensive legislation that governs employment relationships in Brazil? Were the agreements used by employers to adjust the rules to their own interests? The study of collective negotiations between Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and the labor union of the Indústrias Metalúrgicas Mecânicas e Material Elétrico in Catalão aims to answer these questions. Our analysis will provide support for the argument that the establishment of a local labor union had contributed to the increase the representativeness of Mitsubishi workers, in relation to what happened before, since there was support for the establishment of new offices, such as Força Sindical and the Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos (Labor Union Force and the National Confederation of Metallurgical Workers), which are really committed to the demands of workers; there had been an expansion of the magnitude of many benefits over the time, although the thematic scope had not changed much among the agreements; there had been an expansion of the set of additional rules to the existing legislation in relation to the set of not additional rules; in addition to that, the space for employers to adjust the rules to their own interests had been reduced.

Considering the economic growth achieved by Brazil, Russia, India and China, countries that are part of the BRIC group, and the increase in their relevance on the world trade, this dissertation aims to analyze the evolution of their technological gap and to verify the relation with trade patterns and the influence of such gaps in the explanation of recent growth of these economies. In such a way, the work develops an analysis based on the evolution of the GDP growth; FDI; technological indexes based on patents USPTO, publication of scientific and technological papers and R&D expenditure; other than the sectorial trade patterns aggregated by technological intensities. The dissertation also estimate models of export determinants, where exports are classified as high, medium and low technology for each country, based on the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) econometric technique, using the Variance Decomposition Analysis and the Granger causality tests. The main results suggest the existence of a correlation between technological gap reduction and economic growth rates for these economies and a relation for technological improvements and positive changes in trade pattern favoring exports based on products with higher technology, indicating that the BRIC have faced important structural changes even considering their own specificities.

This dissertation aims to contribute to the recovery needs to build a project of national development to Brazil, accompanied by social policies that face the question of the social inequality. Therefore, our hypothesis is that national policies are indispensable to the negative effects of global capitalist development be mitigated, and even reversed, inside the limits that this social order permits. Thus, we intend to treat the structural limits to the Brazilian development in the context of a global capitalist order. Because it is a work of political economy, our methodology is historical theoretical. We started the first chapter stressing some of the inherent questions to the imposition of intrinsic hierarchies to the public policy and its limits, at different scales of economic development, on the Latin America s view. In the second chapter, we apprehend the nature and the meaning of the policy proposals made by the recent presidents elected in Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Lula, saving the fundamental relationship with the identification of the submission of the National State to the conflicts that occur in terms of financial, commercial and diplomatic relationships and the identification of the imposition of hierarchies of state s policies. In the third chapter we continue the discussion introduced in the previous chapters about the specifities of the Brazil s national project of development. At last, in the final considerations, we recover some discussed points in order to present evidences that helped us to understand the limits and potentials of Policy Development in Brazil of the 2000.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais