Financial guarantees in Brazilian life insurance and pension plans

Recently regulated Brazilian life and pension products offer a benefit structure composed of minimum guaranteed annual rate, in°ation adjustment according to a price index and participation on an investment fund performance. We present a valuation model for these products. We establish a fair condition relationship between minimum guarantees and participation rates, and explore its behavior over a space of maturities, interest rates, and also fund and price index volatilities and correlation. Besides consistency to reference models, we found that the effect of the fund volatility is conditioned to the price index volatility level and the correlation between them.

Determinantes macroeconômicos da estrutura a termo da taxa de juros na América Latina

O trabalho relaciona, com um modelo de três fatores proposto por Huse (2007), variáveis macroeconômicas e financeiras observáveis com a estrutura a termo da taxa de juros (ETTJ) dos países da América Latina (Brasil, Chile, Colômbia e México). Consideramos os seguintes determinantes macroeconômicos: taxa de inflação, taxa de variação do nível de atividade, variação da taxa de câmbio, nível do credit default swaps (CDS), nível da taxa de desemprego, nível da taxa de juros nominal e fatores globais (inclinação da curva de juros norte-americana e variação de índices de commodities). Os modelos explicam mais do que 75% nos casos do Brasil, Chile e Colômbia e de 68% no caso do México. Variações positivas no nível de atividade e inflação são acompanhadas, em todos os países, de um aumento na ETTJ. Aumentos do CDS, com exceção do Chile, acarretam em aumento das taxas longas. Já crescimentos na taxa de desemprego têm efeitos distintos nos países. Ao mesmo tempo, depreciações cambiais não são acompanhadas de subida de juros, o que pode ser explicado pelos bancos centrais considerarem que depreciações de câmbio tem efeitos transitórios na inflação. No México, aumentos na ETTJ são diretamente relacionados com o índice de commodities de energia e metálicas. Já no caso brasileiro, em que os preços da gasolina são regulados e não impactam a inflação, esse canal não é relevante. Variações positivas na inclinação da curva norte-americana têm efeitos similares nas curvas da América Latina, reduzindo as taxas curtas e aumentando as taxas longas.

Essays in applied econometrics

Using a unique dataset on Brazilian nominal and real yield curves combined with daily survey forecasts of macroeconomic variables such as GDP growth, inflation, and exchange rate movements, we identify the effect of surprises to the Brazilian interbank target rate on expected future nominal and real short rates, term premia, and inflation expectations. We find that positive surprises to target rates lead to higher expected nominal and real interest rates and reduced nominal and inflation term premia. We also find a strongly positive relation between both real and nominal term premia and measures of dispersion in survey forecasts. Uncertainty about future exchange rates is a particularly important driver of variations in Brazilian term premia.

A intervenção estatal sobre o mercado bancário no Brasil por meio dos bancos públicos: a tentativa de redução dos spreads em 2012

As taxas de juros cobradas pelos bancos têm sido alvo constante de críticas por parte da opinião pública e de preocupação por parte do governo. Uma das razões para essas altas taxas, além do nível elevado da taxa básica de juros SELIC, são os altos spreads cobrados pelos bancos. Uma das formas para tentar diminuir esse nível é aumentar a competitividade entre os bancos. Entretanto, uma suposta dificuldade para se atingir um maior nível de competição é o grau de concentração bancária existente hoje no Brasil. Nesse sentido, o governo brasileiro pressionou o mercado bancário para reduzir seus spreads e taxas durante o primeiro semestre de 2012, um período de aparente estabilidade macroeconômica e de forte queda da taxa SELIC. A pressão exercida pelo governo surtiu efeito, inicialmente sobre os bancos públicos, e, posteriormente, sobre os bancos privados, que anunciaram publicamente a redução de taxas para diversas operações. Este trabalho buscou entender as dimensões e origens dos efeitos desse posicionamento do governo sobre os spreads e a rentabilidade dos maiores bancos brasileiros. Como resultado, observou-se a efetividade da atuação governamental na redução do spread ex post, da rentabilidade das operações de crédito (proxy da taxa) e da rentabilidade geral dos bancos públicos e privados. Apesar disso, houve recuo por parte dos bancos privados na concessão de crédito apontando para o poder de mercado dessas instituições e levantando dúvidas sobre a real capacidade da utilização dos bancos públicos para fomentar maior competitividade em um ambiente de incerteza econômica.

Europe’s financial crisis: the Euro’s flawed design and the consequences of lack of a government banker

This paper argues the euro zone requires a government banker that manages the bond market and helps finance country budget deficits. The euro solved Europe’s problem of exchange rate speculation by creating a unified currency managed by a single central bank, but in doing so it replaced the exchange rate speculation problem with bond market speculation. Remedying this requires a central bank that acts as government banker and maintains bond interest rates at sustainable levels. Because the euro is a monetary union, this must be done in a way that both avoids favoring individual countries and avoids creating incentives for irresponsible country fiscal policy that leads to “bail-outs”. The paper argues this can be accomplished via a European Public Finance Authority (EPFA) that issues public debt which the European Central Bank (ECB) is allowed to trade. The debate over the euro’s financial architecture has significant political implications. The current neoliberal inspired architecture, which imposes a complete separation between the central bank and public finances, puts governments under continuous financial pressures. That will make it difficult to maintain the European social democratic welfare state. This gives a political reason for reforming the euro and creating an EPFA that supplements the economic case for reform.

Monetary policy, default risk and the exchange rate

In a country with high probability of default, higher interest rates may render the currency less attractive if sovereign default is costly. This paper develops that intuition in a simple model and estimates the effect of changes in interest rates on the exchange rate in Brazil using data from the dates surrounding the monetary policy committee meetings and the methodology of identification through heteroskedasticity. Indeed, we find that unexpected increases in interest rates tend to lead the Brazilian currency to depreciate. It follows that granting more independence to a central bank that focus solely on inflation is not always a free-lunch.

Legal enforcement, collateral and heterogeneity of project financing contracts

This paper employs mechanism design to study the effects of imperfect legal enforcement on optimal scale of projects, borrowing interest rates and the probability of default. The analysis departs from an environment that combines asymmetric information about cash flows and limited commitment by borrowers. Incentive for repayment comes from the possibility of liquidation of projects by a court, but courts are costly and may fail to liquidate. The value of liquidated assets can be used as collateral: it is transferred to the lender when courts liquidate. Examples reveal that costly use of courts may be optimal, which contrasts with results from most limited commitment models, where punishments are just threats, never applied in optimal arrangements. I show that when voluntary liquidation is allowed, both asymmetric information and uncertainty about courts are necessary conditions for legal punishments ever to be applied. Numerical solutions for several parametric specifications are presented, allowing for heterogeneity on initial wealth and variability of project returns. In all such solutions, wealthier individuals borrow with lower interest rates and run higher scale enterprises, which is consistent with stylized facts. The reliability of courts has a consistently positive effect on the scale of projects. However its effect on interest rates is subtler and depends essentially on the degree of curvature of the production function. Numerical results also show that the possibility of collateral seizing allows comovements of the interest rates and the probability of repayment.

O diferencial entre as curvas de juros doméstica e externa em reais é uma evidência para o argumento de "incerteza jurisdicional"?

O trabalho faz uma análise sobre as taxas de juros brasileiras, além das principais características da curva soberana de juros nominais, dando ênfase aos títulos pré-fixados emitidos pelo governo em moeda local, no mercado doméstico e externo, onde notamos a ocorrência de um fenômeno bastante peculiar, que é o diferencial de rendimento e de maturidade existentes entre os dois mercados. Arida, Bacha e Lara-Resende (2004) conjecturam sobre a existência de um risco inerente ao país, chamado por eles de “incerteza jurisdicional”, relacionado às instituições brasileiras, e que estaria por trás das altas taxas de juros e da inexistência de um mercado de crédito doméstico de longo prazo. É feito um diagnóstico mais detalhado sobre as possíveis causas do fenômeno de maior maturidade e menor rendimento dos títulos emitidos no mercado externo em relação aos títulos do mercado interno, notando-se que ambos os fenômenos – dos altos juros brasileiros e da inexistência de um mercado juros de longo prazo – estão diretamente relacionados. As conclusões sobre as possíveis causas para o diferencial de rendimento entre os títulos locais e externos emitidos em Reais dizem respeito tanto aos fatores quantitativos, relacionados aos custos de investimento no Brasil e ao risco de conversibilidade, que contribuem em parte para aumentar as taxas exigidas para os títulos locais, bem como aos fatores qualitativos, como piores instituições no Brasil em relação às instituições externas. A diferença de maturidade entre os títulos também advém de questões institucionais, o que reafirma de certo modo a teoria de “incerteza jurisdicional” para explicar este fenômeno.

On the distributive impact of unconventional monetary policy

Logo após à crise financeira de 2007-08 o Federal Reserve interveio para tentar controlar a recessão. No entanto, ele não apenas baixou os juros, como também adotou políticas não-convencionais, incluindo o empréstimo direto para empresas em mercados de crédito de alto nível. Estas novas medidas foram controversas e alguns opositores protestaram porque elas estariam ajudando disproporcionalmente aquelas pessoas ligadas ao sistema financeiro que já eram ricas. Nós utilizamos um modelo DSGE para a análise de políticas monetária não convencional e introduzimos dois tipos distintos de agentes, capitalistas e trabalhadores, para investigar o seu impacto distributivo. Nós encontramos que a política de crédito to Fed foi bem sucedida no mercado de trabalho, o que ajuda mais os trabalhadores, e introduziu um novo competidor no mercado bancário, o governo, o que prejudica mais os capitalistas. Logo, nós encontramos que a política de crédito diminuiu a desigualdade nos EUA.

Fiscal policy contradiction: a perspective on Brazil and Mexico

The aim of this paper is to discuss the quality of fiscal policy in Brazil and Mexico and investigate whether fiscal policy influence is favorable to reduce the unemployment rate. Public spending, which has a positive effect on the level of employment when results in additional aggregate demand, may cause a negative effect on employment, if its financing depends on persistent high interest rates. Brazil and Mexico have engaged in a long effort to control public spending and to reduce the public deficit to zero. Does this policy bring a positive result to the economic activity no matter how actual public deficit has been financed? We select variables related to public budget as public sector borrowing requirements, taxes, public debt and others to form a data base. The fiscal institutional arrangement and the data allow us to evaluate the fiscal policy as a whole and to discuss the importance of credibility and reputation of the government.

Ecological impacts from syngas burning in internal combustion engine: Technical and economic aspects

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Electricity, hot water and cold water production from biomass. Energetic and economical analysis of the compact system of cogeneration run with woodgas from a small downdraft gasifier

Wood gasification technologies to convert the biomass into fuel gas stand out. on the other hand, producing electrical energy from stationary engine is widely spread, and its application in rural communities where the electrical network doesn't exist is very required. The recovery of exhaust gases (engine) is a possibility that makes the system attractive when compared with the same components used to obtain individual heat such as electric power. This paper presents an energetic alternative to adapt a fixed bed gasifier with a compact cogeneration system in order to cover electrical and thermal demands in a rural area and showing an energy solution for small social communities using renewable fuels. Therefore, an energetic and economical analysis from a cogeneration system producing electric energy, hot and cold water, using wooden gas as fuel from a small-sized gasifier was calculated. The energy balance that includes the energy efficiency (electric generation as well as hot and cold water system; performance coefficient and the heat exchanger, among other items), was calculated. Considering the annual interest rates and the amortization periods, the costs of production of electrical energy, hot and cold water were calculated, taking into account the investment, the operation and the maintenance cost of the equipments. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proposta e implementação de uma arquitetura reconfigurável híbrida para aplicações baseadas em fluxo de dados

The increase of applications complexity has demanded hardware even more flexible and able to achieve higher performance. Traditional hardware solutions have not been successful in providing these applications constraints. General purpose processors have inherent flexibility, since they perform several tasks, however, they can not reach high performance when compared to application-specific devices. Moreover, since application-specific devices perform only few tasks, they achieve high performance, although they have less flexibility. Reconfigurable architectures emerged as an alternative to traditional approaches and have become an area of rising interest over the last decades. The purpose of this new paradigm is to modify the device s behavior according to the application. Thus, it is possible to balance flexibility and performance and also to attend the applications constraints. This work presents the design and implementation of a coarse grained hybrid reconfigurable architecture to stream-based applications. The architecture, named RoSA, consists of a reconfigurable logic attached to a processor. Its goal is to exploit the instruction level parallelism from intensive data-flow applications to accelerate the application s execution on the reconfigurable logic. The instruction level parallelism extraction is done at compile time, thus, this work also presents an optimization phase to the RoSA architecture to be included in the GCC compiler. To design the architecture, this work also presents a methodology based on hardware reuse of datapaths, named RoSE. RoSE aims to visualize the reconfigurable units through reusability levels, which provides area saving and datapath simplification. The architecture presented was implemented in hardware description language (VHDL). It was validated through simulations and prototyping. To characterize performance analysis some benchmarks were used and they demonstrated a speedup of 11x on the execution of some applications

Isolamento, caracterização e diferenciação de células-tronco mesenquimais do líquido amniótico equino obtido em diferentes idades gestacionais

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Long term economic relationships from cointegration maps

We employ the Bayesian framework to define a cointegration measure aimed to represent long term relationships between time series. For visualization of these relationships we introduce a dissimilarity matrix and a map based on the sorting points into neighborhoods (SPIN) technique, which has been previously used to analyze large data sets from DNA arrays. We exemplify the technique in three data sets: US interest rates (USIR), monthly inflation rates and gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.