Conexões políticas e o desempenho empresarial pós-aquisição no Brasil

Este estudo buscou analisar o efeito das conexões políticas das empresas no nível do Conselho de Administração sobre o desempenho, após o processo de aquisição. Estudos anteriores já identificaram esta relação apontando efeitos, de positivos a neutros das conexões políticas sobre o desempenho, além de influenciar a frequência e o tamanho das operações (BROCKMAN; RUI; ZOU, 2013; LIU; WANG; ZHANG, 2013). Esta pesquisa estende tais análises aplicando o modelo para as empresas brasileiras além de incluir informações sobre o tipo de conexão política para avaliar diferentes impactos. Este estudo foi conduzido dentro do âmbito das empresas compradoras listadas na BM&Bovespa entre os anos de 1999 e 2014, utilizando modelos econométricos de Propensity Score Matching e dados em painel. Partindo da análise de currículos dos conselheiros, foram codificados os diferentes tipos de conexão, como instituições financeiras públicas e de desenvolvimento e agências reguladoras além das formas tradicionais de conexões políticas (FACCIO, 2006). Com base nos resultados foi encontrada uma associação entre as conexões com agências reguladoras e o desempenho pós-aquisição das empresas adquirentes, bem como indícios de uma relação entre os efeitos das conexões com bancos públicos e de desenvolvimento. Não foi possível apontar resultados para as conexões políticas tradicionais

An essay on economic growth: classical determinants, convergence and financial development

This dissertation surveys the literature on economic growth. I review a substantial number of articles published by some of the most renowned researchers engaged in the study of economic growth. The literature is so vast that before undertaking new studies it is very important to know what has been done in the field. The dissertation has six chapters. In Chapter 1, I introduce the reader to the topic of economic growth. In Chapter 2, I present the Solow model and other contributions to the exogenous growth theory proposed in the literature. I also briefly discuss the endogenous approach to growth. In Chapter 3, I summarize the variety of econometric problems that affect the cross-country regressions. The factors that contribute to economic growth are highlighted and the validity of the empirical results is discussed. In Chapter 4, the existence of convergence, whether conditional or not, is analyzed. The literature using both cross-sectional and panel data is reviewed. An analysis on the topic of convergence using a quantile-regression framework is also provided. In Chapter 5, the controversial relationship between financial development and economic growth is analyzed. Particularly, I discuss the arguments in favour and against the Schumpeterian view that considers financial development as an important determinant of innovation and economic growth. Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation. Summing up, the literature appears to be not fully conclusive about the main determinants of economic growth, the existence of convergence and the impact of finance on growth.

Eleição nas escolas: uma análise do impacto do diretor eleito sobre o desempenho educacional no Estado da Bahia

In Brazil, the selection of school principals is set in a decentralized manner by each state and city, such that processes may vary with time for a specific locality. In the state of Bahia, school principals were appointed by a higher political hierarchy until 2008, when schools under state administration started selecting principals by elections. The main goal of this work is to evaluate whether changing this specific rule affected students proficiency levels. This is achieved by using a panel data and difference-in-differences approachs that compares state schools (treatment group) to city schools (control group) that did not face a selection rule change and thus kept having their principals politically appointed. The databases used are Prova Brasil 2007, 2009 and 2011, the first one prior and the other two former to the policy change. Our results suggest that students attending schools with principals that are selected and elected have slightly lower mean proficiency levels both in mathematics and in portuguese exams than those attending schools with appointed principals. This result, according to the literature, could be related to perverse effects of selecting school administrators by vote, such as corporatism, clientelism and politicization of the school environment

A Corrupção burocrática inibe o empreendedorismo? uma análise empírica dos estados brasileiros

This work aims to investigate the relationship between the entrepreneurship and the incidence of bureaucratic corruption in the states of Brazil and Federal District. The main hypothesis of this study is that the opening of a business in Brazilian states is negatively affected by the incidence of corruption. The theoretical reference is divided into Entrepreneurship and bureaucratic corruption, with an emphasis on materialistic perspective (objectivist) of entrepreneurship and the effects of bureaucratic corruption on entrepreneurial activity. By the regression method with panel data, we estimated the models with pooled data and fixed and random effects. To measure corruption, I used the General Index of Corruption for the Brazilian states (BOLL, 2010), and to represent entrepreneurship, firm entry per capita by state. Tests (Chow, Hausman and Breusch-Pagan) indicate that the random effects model is more appropriate, and the preliminary results indicate a positive impact of bureaucratic corruption on entrepreneurial activity, contradicting the hypothesis expected and found in previous articles to Brazil, and corroborating the proposition of Dreher and Gassebner (2011) that, in countries with high regulation, bureaucratic corruption can be grease in the wheels of entrepreneurship

Multinationals and Exports in a Large and Protected Developing Country

This paper examines an industry-level model developed to analyze the impact of affiliates of multinational firms (MNFs) on the host country's revealed comparative advantages (RCAs), which predicts that the referred impact is given by both technology service and industry orientation. Based on Brazilian manufacturing industries during the import-substitution industrialization, panel data estimates show that MNFs negatively affected RCA, which is explained by location advantages in industries presenting comparative disadvantages, as reinforced by a location model. Two other important results are: (i) import protection had a stronger anti-export effect on multinationals than on national firms; (ii) MNFs were concentrated in industries with lower world-export growth.

Agricultural incentives, growth and poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean: cross-country evidence for the period 1960-2005. Did trade liberalization increase the incomes of the poorest?

Includes bibliography

Ex-post evaluation of the employment effects of a preferential trade agreement: methodological issues, illustrated with a reference to Chile

Includes bibliography