Common cycles in macroeconomic aggregates (revised version)

Although there has been substantial research on long-run co-movement (common trends) in the empirical macroeconomics literature. little or no work has been done on short run co-movement (common cycles). Investigating common cycles is important on two grounds: first. their existence is an implication of most dynamic macroeconomic models. Second. they impose important restrictions on dynamic systems. Which can be used for efficient estimation and forecasting. In this paper. using a methodology that takes into account short- and long-run co-movement restrictions. we investigate their existence in a multivariate data set containing U.S. per-capita output. consumption. and investment. As predicted by theory. the data have common trends and common cycles. Based on the results of a post-sample forecasting comparison between restricted and unrestricted systems. we show that a non-trivial loss of efficiency results when common cycles are ignored. If permanent shocks are associated with changes in productivity. the latter fails to be an important source of variation for output and investment contradicting simple aggregate dynamic models. Nevertheless. these shocks play a very important role in explaining the variation of consumption. Showing evidence of smoothing. Furthermore. it seems that permanent shocks to output play a much more important role in explaining unemployment fluctuations than previously thought.

Public debt sustainability and endogenous seignorage in Brazil: time-series evidence from 1947-92

Using national accounts data for the revenue-GDP and expenditure GDP ratios from 1947 to 1992, we examine two central issues in public finance. First, was the path of public debt sustainable during this period? Second, if debt is sustainable, how has the government historically balanced the budget after hocks to either revenues or expenditures? The results show that (i) public deficit is stationary (bounded asymptotic variance), with the budget in Brazil being balanced almost entirely through changes in taxes, regardless of the cause of the initial imbalance. Expenditures are weakly exogenous, but tax revenues are not;(ii) a rational Brazilian consumer can have a behavior consistent with Ricardian Equivalence (iii) seignorage revenues are critical to restore intertemporal budget equilibrium, since, when we exclude them from total revenues, debt is not sustainable in econometric tests.

O Brasil precisa de política industrial? De que tipo?

Este trabalho discute a conveniência do uso de políticas industrias no Brasil. Argumenta-se que o sucesso dos países do Leste Asiático, muitas vezes relacionado ao uso de política industrial (PI), é resultado principalmente de políticas horizontais. Além disso, aponta-se que a maioria dos argumentos utilizados para justificar a adoção de PI carece de fundamentação teórica e empírica e que PI deve ser motivada por algum tipo de falha de mercado. Nesse sentido, faz-se uma breve descrição das falhas de mercado que teoricamente justificariam algum tipo de PI, avalia-se a relevância empírica destas falhas e quais as ferramentas de intervenção seriam mais adequadas (se for o caso). A partir disso, avalia-se a atual política industrial brasileira, tal como descrita em Brasil (2003). Por fim, conclui-se que políticas horizontais, além de estarem menos sujeitas à pressão de grupos organizados, possuem maior potencial para impulsionar o crescimento econômico brasileiro.

Uncertainty aversion and the optmal choice of portfolio

In this paper we apply the theory of declsion making with expected utility and non-additive priors to the choice of optimal portfolio. This theory describes the behavior of a rational agent who i5 averse to pure 'uncertainty' (as well as, possibly, to 'risk'). We study the agent's optimal allocation of wealth between a safe and an uncertain asset. We show that there is a range of prices at which the agent neither buys not sells short the uncertain asset. In contrast the standard theory of expected utility predicts that there is exactly one such price. We also provide a definition of an increase in uncertainty aversion and show that it causes the range of prices to increase.

Retornos em educação no Brasil: 1976/1986

As taxas de retorno pessoais dos investimentos em educação no Brasil são calculadas com base nos dados das PNADs, utilizando-se metodologia desenvolvida por Mincer (1974). As principais conclusões são: (i) os retornos em educação estão elevadíssimos, ao redor de 15% reais ao ano; (ii) os retornos em educação estão-se elevando ao longo do período estudado o que sinaliza que a distribuição de renda deve ter piorado; (iii) os aumentos das taxas de retorno em educação ocorreram de maneira mais incisiva sobrecursos secundários e superior, um agravante ainda maior para a distribuição de renda, já que são as faixas de rendas mais elevadas; (iv) as taxas de retorno mais elevadas são, atualmente, do secundário e do primário iniciante (1.ª a 4.ª séries); (v) o primário avançado, (5.ª a 8.ª séries, o antigo ginásio) apresenta retornos substancialmente menores que os outros níveis.