Is child labor harmful? the impact of working as a child on adult earnings

This paper explores the question: is working as young laborer harmful to an individual in terms of adult outcomes in income? This question is explored through the utilization of a unique set of instruments that control for the decision to work as a child and the decision of how much schooling to acquire. These instruments are combined with two large household survey data sets from Brazil that include retrospective information on the child labor and schooling of working-age adults: the 1988 and 1996 PNAD. Estimations of the reduced form earnings model are performed first by using OLS without controlling for the potential endogeneity of child labor and schooling, and then by using a GMM estimation of instrumental variables models that include the set of instruments for child labor and schooling. The findings of the empirical investigations show that child labor has large negative impact on adult earnings for both male and female children even when controlling for schooling. In addition, the negative impact of starting to work as a child reverses at around age 14. Finally, different child labor activities are examined to determine if some are beneficial while others harmful with the finding that working in agriculture as a child appears to have no negative impact over and above the loss of education.

Formation of social capital in Eastern Europe : explaining the gap vis-à-vis developed countries

Recent Eurobarometer survey data are used to document and explain the leveI of social capital in thirteen new members and fifteen current members of the European Union. Social capital in Eastern Europe - measured by participation in clubs and organization, intensity of networks or altruistic behavior - lags behind that in developed countries. The differences in individual-leveI determinants cannot fully account for the gap at the aggregate leveI. Once we also include aggregate measures of economic development and quality of institutions, the gap disappears. This implies that the EU enlargement will contribute to a convergence in social capital, assuming that it contributes to the economic and institutional development of Eastern European countries. A necessary condition is that both, formal and informal institutions and their interaction should be regarded in this process.

Do dividends signal more earnings? a theoretical analysis

The signaling models have contributed to the literature of corporate finance by the formalization of "the informational content of dividends hypothesis". However, these models are under criticism of empirical works, as weak evidences were found supporting one of the main predictions: the positive relation between changes in dividends and changes in earnings. We claim that the failure to verify this prediction does not invalidate the signaling approach. The mo deIs developed up to now assume or derive utility functions with the single-crossing property. We show that signaling is possible in the absence of this property and, in this case, changes in dividend and changes in earnings can be positively or negatively related.

The Brazilian venture capital industry and its strategic role in closing the financing gap of SMEs

This discussion paper is a contribution of the Brazilian Government to the 2006 Annual Conference of the OECD High-level Conference on "Better Financing for Entrepreneurship and SMEs" to be held in Brasilia, Brazil on 27-30 March 2006. It has been prepared by The Center for Studies in Private Equity and Venture Capital of EAESP-Fundação Getúlio Vargas under the auspices of ABDI – Agência Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento Industrial – an agency of the Ministry of Industrial Development and Foreign Trade, in cooperation with ABVCAP – The Brazilian Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital

Post-earnings announcement drift no mercado de ações brasileiro

Este trabalho busca testar a eficiência do mercado de ações brasileiro através da identificação da existência de post-earnings announcement drift, fenômeno já bastante estudado e reproduzido no mercado norte-americano. Segundo a literatura existente a respeito do assunto, a informação contida na divulgação de resultados de uma firma é relevante para a formação de preço de suas ações. Além disso, os retornos anormais acumulados de ações de firmas que divulgam resultados com “surpresas positivas” possuem tendência positiva por algum tempo após a divulgação do resultado. Por outro lado, os retornos anormais acumulados de ações de empresas que divulgam resultados com “surpresas negativas” possuem tendência negativa por algum tempo após a divulgação do resultado. A identificação de post-earnings announcement drift no mercado acionário brasileiro pode ser de grande utilidade para a estruturação de estratégias de arbitragem e gestão de portfólios. Após uma revisão teórica, o resultado é apresentado e se mostra parcialmente consistente com a literatura existente.

Labor earnings dynamics in post-stabilization Brazil

This paper analyzes both the levels and evolution of wage inequality in the Brazilian formal labor market using administrative data from the Brazilian Ministry of Labor (RAIS) from 1994 to 2009. After the covariance structure of the log of real weekly wages is estimated and the variance of the log of real weekly wages is decomposed into its permanent and transitory components, we verify that nearly 60% of the inequality within age and education groups is explained by the permanent component, i.e., by time-invariant individual productive characteristics. During this period, wage inequality decreased by 29%. In the rst years immediately after the macroeconomic stabilization (1994