The power of the purse : what do the data say on US federal budget allocation to the states?

This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of the allocation of the US federal budget to the states and tests the capability of congressional, electoral and partisan theories to explain such allocation. We find that socio-economic characteristics are important explanatory variables but are not sufficient to explain the disparities in the distribution of federal monies. First, prestige committee membership is not conducive to pork-barrelling. We do not find any evidence that marginal states receive more funding; on the opposite, safe states tend to be rewarded. Also, states that are historically "swing" in presidential elections tend to receive more funds. Finally, we find strong evidence supporting partisan theories of budget allocation. States whose governor has the same political affiliation of the President receive more federal funds; while states whose representatives belong to a majority opposing the president party receive less funds.

As demonstrações financeiras em US GAAP tomadas como instrumento gerencial da CST: um estudo de caso

A finalidade desta pesquisa é avaliar as demonstrações financeiras da CST preparadas de acordo com os princípios contábeis geralmente aceitos nos Estados Unidos, como um instrumento de tomada de decisões, pela administração da CST, ao invés dos demonstrativos preparados de acordo com os princípios contábeis geralmente aceitos no Brasil. Como estudo de caso da CST, os seus relatórios financeiros, incluindo demonstrações financeiras, relatórios de administração, press release, e outros, relacionados ao periodo de 1994 a 2000, constituem a base desta pesquisa. As informações de tais documentos foram comparadas e analisadas. Também, foi necessário pesqUIsar sobre as principais regras contábeis do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos que afetam o resultado deste estudo. Alguns livros sobre contabilidade e finanças de ambos os paises, Brasil e Estados Unidos, foram também usados como uma base conceitual. A partir dos resultados obtidos foi possível conhecer a influência das diferenças de princípios contábeis e, aSSIm avaliar quaIs demonstrações contábeis, brasileiras ou amencanas, são mats consistentes para finalidades gerenCIatS, considerando as caracteristicas da CST.

Rising Brazil: Implications for the United States

Foreign policy commentator Matias Spektor explains that "Brazil and the US are not natural allies — shared interests on their own do not automatically produce alliances." That is why "A working partnership, if it is to exist at all, must be engineered."

The Taylor rule under inquiry: Hidden states

This work empirically evaluates the Taylor rule for the US and Brazil using Markov-Switching Regimes. I find that the inflation parameter of the US Taylor rule is less than one in many periods, contrasting heavily with Clarida, Gal´ı and Gertler (2000), and the same happens with Brazilian data. When the inflation parameter is greater than one, it encompasses periods that these authors considered they should be less than one. Brazil is used for comparative purposes because it experienced a high level inflation until 1994 and then a major stabilization plan reduced the growth in prices to civilized levels. Thus, it is a natural laboratory to test theories designed to work in any environment. The findings point to a theoretical gap that deserves further investigation and show that monetary policy in Brazil has been ineffective, which is coherent with the general attitude of population in relation to this measure.

Taylor rule with hidden states

This work evaluates empirically the Taylor rule for the US and Brazil using Kalman Filter and Markov-Switching Regimes. We show that the parameters of the rule change significantly with variations in both output and output gap proxies, considering hidden variables and states. Such conclusions call naturally for robust optimal monetary rules. We also show that Brazil and US have very contrasting parameters, first because Brazil presents time-varying intercept, second because of the rigidity in the parameters of the Brazilian Taylor rule, regardless the output gap proxy, data frequency or sample data. Finally, we show that the long-run inflation parameter of the US Taylor rule is less than one in many periods, contrasting strongly with Orphanides (forthcoming) and Clarida, Gal´i and Gertler (2000), and the same happens with Brazilian monthly data.

The Culture of entrepreneurship: a study of the entrepreneurial motivation and attitudes towards business creation in the UAE in comparison to the US and Brazil

This study demonstrates the cultural dimension and the surrounding environment of different entrepreneurs selected from three countries, the United States of America, the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates. The general objective is to understand the difference in the entrepreneurial motives and spirit towards venture creation from the three different countries. After conducting field research and collecting the required data, a deep analysis was conducted to draw a comparison between the three cultures from an individual’s point of view, to help shape a set of proposed recommendations, which could be used to improve the current culture of entrepreneurship in the UAE.