The long-run economic impact of AIDS

This paper studies the long-run impact of HIV / AIDS on per capita income and education. We introduce a channel from HIV / AIDS to long-run income that has been overlooked by the literature, the reduction of the incentives to study due to shorter expected longevity. We work with a continuous time overlapping generations mo deI in which life cycle features of savings and education decision play key roles. The simulations predict that the most affected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will be in the future, on average, a quarter poorer than they would be without AIDS, due only to the direct (human capital reduction) and indirect (decline in savings and investment) effects of life-expectancy reductions. Schooling will decline on average by half. These findings are well above previous results in the literature and indicate that, as pessimistic as they may be, at least in economic terms the worst could be yet to come.

Brazil's middle classes

This paper discusses the Brazilian middle class, its definition, evolution, profile, attitudes and durability. It describes the methodology that uses per capita household income derived from household surveys to determine economic classes. It gauges their respective aggregate trends and gauges individual income risks using longitudinal data. An income-based approach is only the beginning. This initial approach is integrated with subjective data to measure expectations and attitudes of different economic classes combined with a structural approach that takes into account the roles played by human, physical and social capital in the production factors, in terms of income generation and temporal allocation of resources. In all cases, income is the chosen numeraire by which all dimensions analyzed are projected. In the end of the article, all forms of measurement proposed – current income, consumption smoothing (permanent income), productive assets and subjective aspects – are combined to discuss the design of public policies aimed at the Brazilian middle classes.

Essays on economic growth

A fundamental question in development economics is why some economies are rich and others poor. To illustrate the income per capita gap across economies consider that the average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the richest 10 percent of economies in the year 2010 was a factor of 40-fold that of the poorest 10 percent of economies. In other words, the average person in a rich economy produces in just over 9 days what the average person in a poor economy produces in an entire year. What are the factors that can explain this difference in standard of living across the world today? With this in view, this dissertation is a conjunction of three essays on the economic growth field which we seek a possible responses to this question. The first essay investigates the existence of resource misallocation in the Brazilian manufacturing sector and measures possible distortions in it. Using a similar method of measurement to the one developed by Hsieh and Klenow (2009) and firm-level data for 1996-2011 we find evidence of misallocation in the manufacturing sector during the observed period. Moreover, our results show that misallocation has been growing since 2005, and it presents a non-smooth dynamic. Significantly, we find that the Brazilian manufacturing sector operates at about 50% of its efficient product. With this, if capital and labor were optimally reallocated between firms and sectors we would obtain an aggregate output growth of approximately 110-180% depending on the mode in which the capital share is measured. We also find that the economic crisis did not have a substantial effect on the total productivity factor or on the sector's misallocation. However, small firms in particular seem to be strongly affected in a global crisis. Furthermore, the effects described would be attenuated if we consider linkages and complementarity effects among sectors. Despite Brazil's well-known high tax burden, there is not evidence that this is the main source of resource misallocation. Moreover, there is a distinct pattern of structural change between the manufacturing sectors in industrialized countries and those in developing countries. Therefore, the second essay demonstrate that this pattern differs because there are some factors that distort the relative prices and also affect the output productivity. For this, we present a multi-sector model of economic growth, where distortions affect the relative prices and the allocation of inputs. This phenomenon imply that change of the production structure or perpetuation of the harmful structures to the growth rate of aggregate output. We also demonstrate that in an environment with majority decision, this distortion can be enhanced and depends on the initial distribution of firms. Furthermore, distortions in relative prices would lead to increases in the degree of misallocation of resources, and that imply that there are distinct patterns of structural changes between economies. Finally, the calibrated results of the framework developed here converge with the structural change observed in the firm-level data of the Brazilian manufacturing sector. Thereafter, using a cross-industry cross-country approach, the third essay investigates the existence of an optimal level of competition to enhance economic growth. With that in mind, we try to show that this optimal level is different from industrialized and under development economies due to the technology frontier distance, the terms of trade, and each economy's idiosyncratic characteristics. Therefore, the difference in competition industry-country level is a channel to explain the output for worker gap between countries. The theoretical and empirical results imply the existence of an inverted-U relationship between competition and growth: starting for an initially low level of competition, higher competition stimulates innovation and output growth; starting from a high initial level of competition, higher competition has a negative effect on innovation and output growth. Given on average industries in industrialized economies present higher competition level. With that if we control for the terms of trade and the industry-country fixed effect, if the industries of the developing economy operated under the same competition levels as of the industrialized ones, there is a potential increase of output of 0.2-1.0% per year. This effect on the output growth rate depends on the competition measurement used.

O rateio de ICMS por desempenho de municípios no Ceará e seu impacto em indicadores do sistema de avaliação da educação

De todo ICMS arrecadado pelos estados brasileiros, 25% é distribuído aos municípios. Os estados são responsáveis por definir as regras de distribuição de 25% destes 25% do ICMS que é transferido aos municípios, os outros 75% seguem o critério do Valor Adicionado Fiscal. Alguns estados alteraram suas leis para que a distribuição seja realizada em função do desempenho dos municípios em algumas áreas com o intuito de incentiva-lo a melhorarem sua performance em busca de uma maior fatia do ICMS. Seguindo esta lógica está o estado do Ceará onde 100% do ICMS distribuído segundo regras estaduais é calculado a partir do desempenho dos municípios em indicadores de resultado nas áreas da educação (72%), saúde (20%) e meio ambiente (8%). Este estudo tem como objetivo estimar o efeito que a mudança da Lei de distribuição do ICMS do Ceará teve em indicadores de resultado da área da educação: IDEB e Prova Brasil. Para tanto, foi utilizado o método da Dupla Diferença por meio da construção de grupos de controle e tratamento. Assim, comparou-se a evolução do desempenho, anteriormente e posteriormente à mudança, de municípios cearenses com municípios parecidos de estados vizinhos, porém, não submetidos a mesma regra de distribuição de ICMS. De forma complementar, foram feitas outras duas analises separando os municípios do estado do Ceará entre ganhadores e perdedores de recursos de ICMS com a mudança na Lei e entre os detentores dos melhores e piores desempenhos de PIB per capita. Os resultados apontam impactos positivos no desempenho dos municípios cearenses tanto no IDEB quanto na Prova Brasil. Mesmo os municípios que perderam recursos com mudança das regras de distribuição de ICMS, melhoraram sua performance na educação. Os municípios mais pobres do estado, que apresentam desempenho pior do que os municípios mais ricos, aumentaram o desempenho reduzindo a diferença de proficiência se comparada aos municípios mais ricos. Neste sentido, há indícios de que a mudança na Lei do ICMS implementada pelo estado do Ceará gerou impactos positivos no desempenho dos municípios no IDEB e na Prova Brasil.

Ensaios sobre crescimento econômico de longo prazo

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo realizar um ensaio sobre crescimento econômico de longo prazo considerando diferentes tipos de modelos e avaliar a relação do governo com o crescimento de longo prazo. No Capítulo 1 é feita uma introdução sobre a teoria do crescimento moderno e quais os fatores foram identificados como capazes de contribuir para o crescimento do PIB per capita. Nos Capítulos 2 e 3 são apresentados os modelos de crescimento econômico de longo prazo de Solow-Swan (com taxa de poupança exógena) e o modelo de Ramsey (com otimização do consumo). O Capítulo 4 foca os diferentes tipos de função produção capazes de gerar ou restringir a criação de riquezas. O Capítulo 5 traz as funções produção contemplando o governo como variável explicativa. No capítulo 6 são desenvolvidas análises de modelos contemplando arrecadação de impostos e transferências a fim de se avaliar o impacto nas equações dinâmicas do sistema. No capítulo 7, são utilizados dados de PIB per capita, gastos per capita do governo e capital per capita de Alemanha, Brasil, China, Dinamarca, Estados Unidos e França para identificar a participação destes fatores no crescimento econômico.

Descentralização no setor da saúde: um estudo sobre a adesão à gestão plena do sistema municipal

Este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar os efeitos da adesão à Gestão Plena do Sistema Municipal. Este processo começou com a instituição da Norma Operacional Básica do SUS de 1996 (NOB/SUS 01/96) e foi descontinuado em 2006 sem explicações oficiais. Os indicadores estudados foram a taxa de mortalidade, total e separada em faixas de idade, e a despesa per capita. As equações foram estimadas utilizando-se o método de difference-in-differences, através de um painel de efeitos fixos, utilizando dados anuais dos municípios brasileiros para o período de 2000 à 2006. Os resultados indicam que os aderentes na primeira metade de vigência da política (1998-2002) obtiveram uma redução de mortalidade gradual, já a partir do primeiro ano de adesão. Contudo, ao incluir os municípios que aderiram na metade final do período de vigência, não foram encontrados resultados estatisticamente relevantes, o que pode indicar uma mudança no rigor dos requisitos cobrados para aderência. Sobre as despesas, com exceção do primeiro ano após a adesão, há indícios de melhora da eficiência.

A divergente trajetória de desenvolvimento da América Latina e da Ásia explicada pelas diferenças nas fontes de crescimento dos seus países no pós guerra

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar, empiricamente, as diferenças na trajetória de desenvolvimento econômico no pós-guerra para os países da América Latina, vis-a-vis à amostra de referência comparativa – países asiáticos. A metodologia utilizada no trabalho baseia-se em pesquisas bibliográficas e em diferentes bases de dados que visam, primordialmente, a fundamentação conceitual e teórica do modelo. Assim, baseado na função de produção do tipo Cobb-Douglas, utiliza-se a decomposição do crescimento econômico em termos da acumulação de fatores de produção e da evolução do resíduo chamado de produtividade total dos fatores (PTF) para analisar a trajetória e explicar as diferenças nas taxas de crescimento da produtividades dos trabalhadores dos países da América Latina e da Ásia no período compreendido entre os anos 1960 e 2007. É feita também uma extensão do modelo com a abordagem de decomposições de desenvolvimento para estudar o gap de produtividade dos países em relação aos Estados Unidos em 1960, 2000 e 2007. As primeiras análises dos dados corroboraram a questão do fracasso dos países da América Latina em alcançar os níveis de renda per capita da economia americana e que os países asiáticos, que possuíam níveis semelhantes ou inferiores no começo do período, vem obtendo sucesso no processo de catch up. Os resultados do modelo mostram que dentre as economias da América Latina, apenas o Chile e a República Dominicana apresentaram ganhos na produtividade a partir de 1980 até o presente, com taxa média superior a 2% a.a..Tal comportamento se assemelha com os resultados encontrados para as economias asiáticas,apesar da magnitude inferior. Outra coincidência de resultados comparativos é dada pela importância da acumulação de capital humano como principal fator responsável em instantes de aceleração de crescimento da produtividade com resultados de longo prazo.

Unconditional transfers goes to health? Evidence from Brazilian municipalities

This study assesses the impact of unconditional transfer resources on the health indicators of Brazilian municipalities. This transfer refers to the Participation Fund of Municipalities (FPM) where at least 15% of its value should be spent on public health. Based on a discontinuity of the rules of transfers, we explore Regression Discontinuous Design for the years 2002 to 2010, and find: (i) no significant effect of FPM on mortality reduction; (ii) a robust and significant reduction in morbidity, treated municipalities – on the right side of thresholds – on average have a per capita rate of morbidity 0.00821% lower than those on the left side of the cutoff points; (iii) the mechanisms through which a reduction on morbidity could be operated would be due to estimated increases in preventive measures such as consultations and medical and nurses visits, these were bigger for the treated group in, respectively, 0.32%, 0.038% and 0.039%.

Brazil’s 35 years-old quasi-stagnation: facts and theory

Brazil is growing around 1% per capita a year from 1981; this means for a country that is supposed to catch up, quasi-stagnation. Four historical new facts explain why growth was so low after the Real Plan: the reduction of public savings, and three facts that reduce private investments: the end of the unlimited supply of labor, a very high interest rate, and the 1990 dismantling of the mechanism that neutralized the Dutch disease, which represented a major competitive disadvantage for the manufacturing industry. New-developmental theory offers an explanation and two solutions for the problem, but does not underestimate the political economy problems involved

Theoretical and empirical essays on microeconometrics

This Master Thesis consists of one theoretical article and one empirical article on the field of Microeconometrics. The first chapter\footnote{We also thank useful suggestions by Marinho Bertanha, Gabriel Cepaluni, Brigham Frandsen, Dalia Ghanem, Ricardo Masini, Marcela Mello, Áureo de Paula, Cristine Pinto, Edson Severnini and seminar participants at São Paulo School of Economics, the California Econometrics Conference 2015 and the 37\textsuperscript{th} Brazilian Meeting of Econometrics.}, called \emph{Synthetic Control Estimator: A Generalized Inference Procedure and Confidence Sets}, contributes to the literature about inference techniques of the Synthetic Control Method. This methodology was proposed to answer questions involving counterfactuals when only one treated unit and a few control units are observed. Although this method was applied in many empirical works, the formal theory behind its inference procedure is still an open question. In order to fulfill this lacuna, we make clear the sufficient hypotheses that guarantee the adequacy of Fisher's Exact Hypothesis Testing Procedure for panel data, allowing us to test any \emph{sharp null hypothesis} and, consequently, to propose a new way to estimate Confidence Sets for the Synthetic Control Estimator by inverting a test statistic, the first confidence set when we have access only to finite sample, aggregate level data whose cross-sectional dimension may be larger than its time dimension. Moreover, we analyze the size and the power of the proposed test with a Monte Carlo experiment and find that test statistics that use the synthetic control method outperforms test statistics commonly used in the evaluation literature. We also extend our framework for the cases when we observe more than one outcome of interest (simultaneous hypothesis testing) or more than one treated unit (pooled intervention effect) and when heteroskedasticity is present. The second chapter, called \emph{Free Economic Area of Manaus: An Impact Evaluation using the Synthetic Control Method}, is an empirical article. We apply the synthetic control method for Brazilian city-level data during the 20\textsuperscript{th} Century in order to evaluate the economic impact of the Free Economic Area of Manaus (FEAM). We find that this enterprise zone had positive significant effects on Real GDP per capita and Services Total Production per capita, but it also had negative significant effects on Agriculture Total Production per capita. Our results suggest that this subsidy policy achieve its goal of promoting regional economic growth, even though it may have provoked mis-allocation of resources among economic sectors.

Programa ABC: uma análise para o período de 2011 a 2014

As mudanças climáticas se tornam tema cada vez mais presente nos debates envolvendo as grandes potências do mundo. Desde seus efeitos prejudiciais à espécie humana até os planos de ação para combatê-los, o tema é debatido pelos mais importantes atores do cenário geopolítico mundial. O Programa ABC é a linha de crédito associada ao Plano ABC. Através dele os recursos são disponibilizados aos produtores rurais para investimento em tecnologias que reduzam as emissões de gases de efeito estufa. Os empréstimos distribuídos pelo Programa ABC entre os estados brasileiros não são, no entanto, proporcionais à participação de cada estado nas atividades agropecuárias brasileiras. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi identificar os possíveis fatores que determinam a distribuição dos recursos do Programa ABC entre os estados brasileiros. Utilizou-se para tal uma análise exploratória de dados e o cálculo do coefiente de correlação de Spearman, tendo como amostra os estados brasileiros, de 2011 a 2014. Dentre as variáveis associadas à produção agropecuária utilizadas, encontrou-se maiores correlações positivas e significativas entre o crédito do Programa ABC e as produções de soja, milho e pecuária bovina. Também foram verificadas correlações positivas associadas ao número de agências do Banco do Brasil, renda per capita e escolaridade, porém, de menor magnitude. No caso das áreas de pastagens degradadas, há baixa correlação destas com o crédito. Esses resultados indicam que o Programa ABC tem sido mais utilizado nos estados em que a produção de grãos e de bovinos é mais avançada, com baixa adoção, portanto, em regiões com maior potencial de redução de gases de efeito estufa.

Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘Inverted-U’: the share of the rich is what it’s all about

This paper examines the current global scene of distributional disparities within-nations. There are six main conclusions. First, about 80 per cent of the world’s population now live in regions whose median country has a Gini not far from 40. Second, as outliers are now only located among middle-income and rich countries, the ‘upwards’ side of the ‘Inverted-U’ between inequality and income per capita has evaporated (and with it the statistical support there was for the hypothesis that posits that, for whatever reason, ‘things have to get worse before they can get better’). Third, among middle-income countries Latin America and mineral-rich Southern Africa are uniquely unequal, while Eastern Europe follows a distributional path similar to the Nordic countries. Fourth, among rich countries there is a large (and growing) distributional diversity. Fifth, within a global trend of rising inequality, there are two opposite forces at work. One is ‘centrifugal’, and leads to an increased diversity in the shares appropriated by the top 10 and bottom 40 per cent. The other is ‘centripetal’, and leads to a growing uniformity in the income-share appropriated by deciles 5 to 9. Therefore, half of the world’s population (the middle and upper-middle classes) have acquired strong ‘property rights’ over half of their respective national incomes; the other half, however, is increasingly up for grabs between the very rich and the poor. And sixth, Globalisation is thus creating a distributional scenario in which what really matters is the income-share of the rich — because the rest ‘follows’ (middle classes able to defend their shares, and workers with ever more precarious jobs in ever more ‘flexible’ labour markets). Therefore, anybody attempting to understand the within-nations disparity of inequality should always be reminded of this basic distributional fact following the example of Clinton’s campaign strategist: by sticking a note on their notice-boards saying “It’s the share of the rich, stupid”.

Spatial spillovers and political coordination in public health provision

We estimate the impact of the main unconditional federal grant (Fundo de Participaçãodos Municípios - FPM) to Brazilian municipalities as well as its spillover from the neighboring cities on local health outcomes. We consider data from 2002 to 2007 (Brollo et al, 2013) and explore the FPM distribution rule according to population brackets to apply a fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) using cities near the thresholds. In elasticity terms, we nd a reduction on infant mortality rate (-0.18) and on morbidity rate (- 0.41), except in the largest cities of our sample. We also nd an increase on the access to the main program of visiting the vulnerable families, the Family Health Program (Programa Sa ude da Família - PSF). The e ects are stronger for the smallest cities of our sample and we nd increase: (i) On the percentage of residents enrolled in the program (0.36), (ii) On the per capita number of PSF visits (1.59), and (iii) On the per capita number of PSF visits with a doctor (1.8) and nurse (2). After we control for the FPM spillover using neighboring cities near diferent thresholds, our results show that the reduction in morbidity and mortality is largely due to the spillover e ect, but there are negative spillover on preventive actions, as PSF doctors visits and vaccination. Finally, the negative spillover e ect on health resources may be due free riding or political coordination problems, as in the case of the number of hospital beds, but also due to to competition for health professionals, as in the case of number of doctors (-0.35 and -0.87, respectively), specially general practitioners and surgeons (-1.84 and -2.45).