The underestimated role of universities for the Brazilian system of innovation

Conventional wisdom usually underestimates the important role of public research institutes and universities in successful cases of Brazilian economy. History of science and technology institutions shows a long-term process of formation of these institutions and their interactions with industrial firms, agricultural producers or society. This paper investigates historical roots of successful cases of Brazil. First, we present the late onset of National Innovation System (NSI) institutions and waves of institutional formation in Brazil. Second, we describe the history of three selected successful cases, which spans from a low-tech sector (agriculture), a medium-tech sector (steel and special metal alloys), to a high-tech sector (aircraft). These findings present new challenges for present-day developmental policies.

The Banco Central do Brasil's institutional framework after ten years

The Banco Central do Brazil (BACEN) adopted inflation targeting in 1999. This monetary policy regime originates in institutional design which remains crucial today for the expectations management, and is in permanent evolution. After 10 years, the BACEN institutional framework is assessed, asking if there is still room for improvement. Various institutional procedures are analysed, and lessons are drawn from the international experience of a panel of sixteen countries. Some proposals for the BACEN institutional framework are made.

Judiciário e política regulatória: instituições e preferências sob a ótica dos custos de transação

Judiciary and regulatory policy. Increasingly, judges and the courts appear as actors capable of affecting the trajectory of the government decisions, as strategic agents in the policy process. This paper presents an analytical model able to clearly and objectively measure the impact of judicial review in the design of policies in the sphere of economic regulation. Underlying the model is the concept of transaction costs, through which one can raise the levels of intervention of the judiciary in regulatory policy. In addition to the analytical model, the article demonstrates that the interaction between the heterogeneity of preferences in the courts and institutional mechanisms of the justice system is capable of generating greater coordination and cooperation than expected.