Sources of comparative advantages in Brazil

Based on the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek model, this paper investigates relative factor abundance in Brazil, as revealed by its international trade. We study two different time periods: one characterized by high trade barriers (1980 to 1985) and the trade liberalization period (1990 to 1995). Two alternative methodologies are used: the estimation of factor intensity regressions on net exports and the direct computation of factor content in net exports. In the factor intensity regression, we incorporate technological changes that might have occurred over time, and those turned out to be significant. Both methods yield the same results: the Brazilian international trade reveals relative abundance in capital, land and unskilled labor, and scarcity in skilled labor, with qualitatively equivalent results for the two time periods studied.

Estratégias de internacionalização de empresas brasileiras no Mercosul: O Caso Brahma

Este estudo tem por objetivo examinar o processo de internacionalização da Brahma. uma empresa brasileira, em um ambiente especifico, denominado MERCOSUL, assim como também outros espaços na América Latina; sob uma perspectiva econômico-comportamental. que pode condicionar a tomada de decisão de internacionalização e a opção do modo de entrada da empresa no mercado externo. O método de pesquisa adotado foi o estudo de caso. Devido à natureza exploratória do estudo, a abordagem de coleta de dados foi a entrevista em profundidade, dada a escassez de outras fontes confiáveis a que se pudesse recorrer. Os resultados propiciaram uma avaliação das proposições estudadas na literatura, permitindo a confimlação de algumas já existentes e abrindo caminho para pesquisas futuras no processo de internacionalização.

Organizational design as an enabler for innovation: evidence from a German Mechanical Engineering Company

Over the past two decades there has been a profusion of empirical studies of organizational design and its relationship to efficiency, productivity and flexibility of an organization. In parallel, there has been a wide range of studies about innovation management in different kind of industries and firms. However, with some exceptions, the organizational and innovation management bodies of literature tend to examine the issues of organizational design and innovation management individually, mainly in the context of large firms operating at the technological frontier. There seems to be a scarcity of empirical studies that bring together organizational design and innovation and examine them empirically and over time in the context of small and medium sized enterprises. This dissertation seeks to provide a small contribution in that direction. This dissertation examines the dynamic relationship between organizational design and innovation. This relationship is examined on the basis of a single-case design in a medium sized mechanical engineering company in Germany. The covered time period ranges from 1958 until 2009, although the actual focus falls on the recent past. This dissertation draws on first-hand qualitative empirical evidence gathered through extensive field work. The main findings are: 1. There is always a bundle of organizational dimensions which impacts innovation. These main organizational design dimensions are: (1) Strategy & Leadership, (2) Resources & Capabilities, (3) Structure, (4) Culture, (5) Networks & Partnerships, (6) Processes and (7) Knowledge Management. However, the importance of the different organizational design dimensions changes over time. While for example for the production of simple, standardized parts, a simple organizational design was appropriate, the company needed to have a more advanced organizational design in order to be able to produce customized, complex parts with high quality. Hence the technological maturity of a company is related to its organizational maturity. 2. The introduction of innovations of the analyzed company were highly dependent on organizational conditions which enabled their introduction. The results of the long term case study show, that some innovations would not have been introduced successfully if the organizational elements like for example training and qualification, the build of network and partnerships or the acquisition of appropriate resources and capabilities, were not in place. Hence it can be concluded, that organizational design is an enabling factor for innovation. These findings contribute to advance our understanding of the complex relationship between organizational design and innovation. This highlights the growing importance of a comprehensive, innovation stimulating organizational design of companies. The results suggest to managers that innovation is not only dependent on a single organizational factor but on the appropriate, comprehensive design of the organization. Hence manager should consider to review regularly the design of their organizations in order to maintain a innovation stimulating environment.

Globalização de capacidades tecnológicas inovadoras e o papel de subsidiárias de empresas transnacionais (ETNs) no contexto de países em desenvolvimento: a trajetória de uma empresa do setor de TIC no Brasil

This dissertation seeks to add new evidence to the international debate on globalization of innovation in the developing countries context. Globalization of innovation, in this dissertation, is defined and measured by the types, levels and rate of innovative technological capability accumulation and the underlying technological learning processes (sources of capabilities) at the firm level in late-industrializing countries ¿ or developing countries. This relationship is examined within a large transnational corporation (TNC) subsidiary of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Brasil: Motorola do Brasil during over the period from 1996 to 2006. In the international literature there is a strong debate on the extent to which innovative technological capabilities have been spreading internationally. But, the most of the studies are focused on early industrialized countries. In other words, there is still a scarcity of analysis, mainly at the firm level, from the perspective of developing countries. This dissertation supports itself in analytical basis developed in the international literature on accumulation of technological capabilities and learning in the context of developing countries. The learning processes examined in this dissertation are: (i) intra-firm learning processes; (ii) inter-firm learning processes (links between mother and sister companies); and (iii) links between the firm and other organizations of the innovation system (universities, research institutes, among others). Based on first-hand empirical evidence, qualitative and quantitative, collected on the basis of extensive fieldwork, this dissertation examines these issues with adequate level of detail and depth, in this large company in Brazil. The study results suggest that: Concerning the path of the technological capability accumulation, the firm exhibited heterogeneity in the path of accumulation of technological capabilities to distinct functions. For the functions Software Engineering and Process and Management Project the firm reached the Level 6 (Innovative Intermediate Superior), on a scale that ranges from 1 to 7; In relation to technological capability sources, the firm deliberately sought and built sources of knowledge in order to develop and sustain its innovative technological capabilities. The dissertation, thus, contributes to adding new empirical evidence to the debate on globalization of innovative capabilities from a late-industrializing perspective.

Globalização de capacidades tecnológicas inovadoras e o papel de subsidiárias de empresas transnacionais( ETNs) No contexto de países em desenvolvimento: a trajetória de uma empresa do setor de TIC no Brasil

This dissertation seeks to add new evidence to the international debate on globalization of innovation in the developing countries context. Globalization of innovation, in this dissertation, is defined and measured by the types, levels and rate of innovative technological capability accumulation and the underlying technological learning processes (sources of capabilities) at the firm level in late-industrializing countries ¿ or developing countries. This relationship is examined within a large transnational corporation (TNC) subsidiary of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Brasil: Motorola do Brasil during over the period from 1996 to 2006. In the international literature there is a strong debate on the extent to which innovative technological capabilities have been spreading internationally. But, the most of the studies are focused on early industrialized countries. In other words, there is still a scarcity of analysis, mainly at the firm level, from the perspective of developing countries. This dissertation supports itself in analytical basis developed in the international literature on accumulation of technological capabilities and learning in the context of developing countries. The learning processes examined in this dissertation are: (i) intra-firm learning processes; (ii) inter-firm learning processes (links between mother and sister companies); and (iii) links between the firm and other organizations of the innovation system (universities, research institutes, among others). Based on first-hand empirical evidence, qualitative and quantitative, collected on the basis of extensive fieldwork, this dissertation examines these issues with adequate level of detail and depth, in this large company in Brazil. The study results suggest that: Concerning the path of the technological capability accumulation, the firm exhibited heterogeneity in the path of accumulation of technological capabilities to distinct functions. For the functions Software Engineering and Process and Management Project the firm reached the Level 6 (Innovative Intermediate Superior), on a scale that ranges from 1 to 7; In relation to technological capability sources, the firm deliberately sought and built sources of knowledge in order to develop and sustain its innovative technological capabilities. The dissertation, thus, contributes to adding new empirical evidence to the debate on globalization of innovative capabilities from a late-industrializing perspective.

Three essays on education from the perspective of the economics of public setor

This work consists of three essays organized into chapters that seek to answer questions at first sight unrelated, but with one common denominator, which is the scarcity of public resources devoted to education, overall, especially in lower education. . The first chapter deals with the scarcity of resources devoted to education in a context of population aging. Two hypotheses were tested for Brazilian municipalities on the relationship between the aging of the population and educational expenditure. The first, already proven in the literature, is that there is an intergenerational conflict for resources and the increase of the share of elderly in the population reduces the educational expenditure. The second, proposed here for the first time, is that there should be reduction of competition for resources if there is a relationship of co-residence between young and old. The results indicated that an increase in the share of elderly reduces the educational expenditure per youth. But the results also illustrate that an increase in the share of elderly co-residing with youth (family arrangement more common in Latin American countries) raises the educational expenditure, which reflects a reduction of competition for resources between generations. The second chapter assesses the allocative efficiency of investments in Higher Education. Using the difference between first-year and last-year students’ scores from Enade aggregated by HEI as a product in the Stochastic Production Function, is possible to contribute with a new element in the literature aimed at estimating the production function of education. The results show that characteristics of institutions are the variables that best explain the performance of students, and that public institutions are more inefficient than the private ones. Finally, the third chapter presents evidence that the allocation of public resources in early childhood education is important for a better future school performance. In this chapter was calculated the effects of early childhood education on literacy scores of children attending the 2nd grade of elementary school. The results using OLS and propensity score matching show that students who started school at the ages to 5, 4, and 3 years had literacy scores between 12.22 and 19.54 points higher than the scores of those who began school at the ages 6 years or late. The results also suggest that the returns in terms of literacy scores diminish in relation to the number of years of early childhood education.

A cultura do girassol como estratégia de competitividade para o agronegócio regional e nacional: importância para a agroenergia e a alimentação

Equacionar aquecimento global, escassez de alimentos e a crescente necessidade energética, tornou-se, atualmente, o grande desafio mundial. Existem diversas culturas agrícolas que podem ser exploradas de maneira estratégica e assim colaborar com a solução deste problema. Dentre elas, pode-se destacar a cultura do girassol (Helianthus Annuus). O girassol é uma das quatro maiores culturas oleaginosas no mundo, cultivado com sucesso nos cinco continentes, ocupando uma área de cultivo superior a 22 milhões de hectares. A participação do Brasil nesse montante é inferior a 1%. Acredita-se que essa pequena participação se deva a fatores sócio-econômicos e tecnológicos. Salienta-se, porém que o Brasil, por suas vantagens comparativas naturais e vantagens competitivas construídas possui condições favoráveis para seu desenvolvimento. Diante dos fatos, o objetivo deste trabalho é aprofundar o conhecimento da cadeia produtiva do girassol e através de sua utilização como estratégia de competitividade, avaliar de maneira sistêmica os impactos na matriz agrícola do País. Dentre as inúmeras vantagens dessa cultura, pode-se destacar: características agronômicas, físicas, químicas, organolépticas e versatilidade, que permitem a utilização e otimização dos fatores de produção já disponíveis; época de plantio (adaptabilidade a diferentes condições edafoclimáticas), podendo ser cultivado desde o Rio Grande do Sul até o Estado de Roraima; sistema radicular (raiz pode chegar a dois metros de profundidade), permitindo o melhor aproveitamento dos nutrientes e da água do solo e promovendo a reciclagem de nutrientes; alto teor de óleo nas sementes (30% a 55%) e; alto valor comercial dos co-produtos. Esse conjunto de características é analisado sob a ótica da teoria das vantagens competitivas e das economias de escala e escopo, demonstrando que com inteligência e pragmatismo, a cultura do girassol pode repetir, com vantagens, o que a soja representou para o agronegócio brasileiro.

O alinhamento entre o plano de governo e o PPA: o caso do município de Nolópolis

O objetivo deste trabalho é de identificar os fatores que influenciaram a tentativa de transpor as promessas de campanha da eleição majoritária à Prefeitura de Nilópolis na eleição de 2012 para o PPA 2014 / 2017. Para isso, os conceitos de federalismo, gestão pública e instrumentos de planejamento foram abordados no referencial teórico. Foram realizadas entrevistas com os técnicos e o gestor do executivo, os presidentes das comissões de constituição e justiça e comissão de finanças, bem como o presidente da câmara dos vereadores de Nilópolis. Verificou-se que os fatores identificados são responsáveis pela dificuldade em promover o alinhamento entre as promessas de campanha e o pactuado no PPA. A dependência das transferências inter governamentais e a escassez de recursos próprios foram os principais fatores que dificultaram essa transposição no município de Nilópolis.

Condicionantes políticos das reformas tributárias na América Latina

Seriam as reformas tributárias condicionadas por fatores políticos? Verificando a escassez de trabalhos empíricos sobre o tema, elaboramos definição própria de reforma tributária e adotamos uma tipologia para esses fenômenos. Em seguida, compilamos a base de dados de reformas tributárias a partir das respostas aos formulários da pesquisa de campo IPES 2006, realizada pelo Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento, com apoio do Centro Interamericano de Administrações Tributárias (CIAT). Esses formulários foram preenchidos por funcionários especialistas dos ministérios de finanças latino-americanos, que reportaram reformas entre 1990 e 2004. Depois, construímos os índices de reformas tributárias, que foram utilizados como variáveis dependentes em nossos modelos. Os índices contribuem para o desenvolvimento de estudos quantitativos sobre reformas tributárias, portando flexibilidade para testar diversas hipóteses. Eles tornaram possível analisar separadamente os determinantes das reformas da tributação da renda e do consumo, das reformas gerais e direcionadas, das reformas tendentes a aumentar ou reduzir tributos. Nos testes, destacou-se a influência da lista fechada, indicando que a disciplina parlamentar é importante para aprovar reformas. Em menor número de especificações, foram também relevantes a magnitude distrital, o bicameralismo, o poder de decreto do presidente da república e seu ciclo eleitoral. Não captamos evidência de fatores políticos conjunturais, como a ideologia partidária e maioria do governo no parlamento. Do mesmo modo, a influência dos poderes presidenciais de agenda e veto não se confirmou. O domínio de um partido na coalizão de governo foi relevante somente quando vinculado à lista fechada nas eleições. Em geral, os resultados confirmam o impacto de fatores político-institucionais sobre reformas tributárias, não se observando o mesmo para fatores político-conjunturais. Além disso, foram observadas diferenças nos condicionantes políticos que definem reformas na tributação da renda e do consumo, direcionadas e gerais, expansivas e redutoras (incentivos). O estudo contribui para análise quantitativa dos condicionantes políticos das reformas tributárias na América Latina e fornece dados antes indisponíveis. Oferece evidência empírica, considerando diferentes tipos de reformas e de fatores políticos. O estudo conclui pela necessidade de incorporar as variáveis políticas nas análises que envolvam reformas tributárias, até então marcadas pelo domínio dos argumentos econômicos. Além disso, sugere que o aperfeiçoamento das instituições políticas é importante para melhorar as decisões de política tributária na América Latina.

A governança dos recursos hídricos no Brasil colocada à prova em situação de escassez : um estudo de caso

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo estudar a governança das águas brasileiras, especialmente seu funcionamento em situações de escassez hídrica. Com este propósito, após a apresentação da crise hídrica da região Sudeste do Brasil, que colocou à prova o aparato institucional e regulatório das águas nacionais, examina-se o regime de competências constitucionais em matéria de meio ambiente e de águas e as peculiaridades afetas ao Sistema Nacional de Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos. Por fim, de forma propositiva, são elencadas medidas que buscam auxiliar no aperfeiçoamento da governança das águas e do enfrentamento da crise hídrica.