Higher salaries, more teaching, better performance? The effects of the introduction of the minimum salary for teachers in Brazil

De acordo com a literatura empírica, há fortes evidências de que, após o controle de características socioeconômicas dos alunos, a qualidade dos professores é o fator mais importante para explicar o desempenho do aluno em testes padronizados. No entanto, não há consenso sobre como sistemas públicos de ensino podem melhorar a qualidade dos professores. Será que o pagamento de salários mais elevados a professores da rede pública impactam a qualidade dos professores nas escolas públicas? O Governo Federal brasileiro introduziu, em 2009, piso salarial nacional para os professores de escolas públicas, provocando um perceptível aumento exógeno dos salários dos professores municipais. O principal objetivo desta tese é avaliar os impactos de curto prazo da elevação linear e incondicional do salário do professor na qualidade da educação. Devido à ausência de dados secundários sobre o valor do salário-base de professores entre 2008 e 2013, tivemos que realizar um levantamento com as Secretarias Municipais de Educação para reunir informação sobre a estrutura da carreira docente e sobre os salários-bases nesse período. Com base em nossa pesquisa de campo, o primeiro capítulo investiga a conformidade dos sistemas municipais de ensino ao piso salarial nacional para professores de redes públicas. Encontramos que fatores não observáveis/observados são determinantes para explicar a variabilidade salarial verificada entre os municípios e o cumprimento da lei, o que embasa nossa estratégia de identificação com base em métodos de diferença em diferenças, combinados com pareamento com base em escore de propensão. O segundo capítulo centra-se na estimativa do impacto da elevação dos salários dos professores sobre a proficiência dos alunos de 5º ano do ensino fundamental municipal. De acordo com estes resultados, o aumento salarial incondicional não gerou uma expansão da proficiência escolar dos alunos, pelo menos no curto prazo. Embora não tenham sido detectados impactos na aprendizagem dos alunos, alguns mecanismos de transmissão do aumento salarial para melhores resultados educacionais podem já ter sido ativados. Assim, o principal objetivo do terceiro capítulo é avaliar o impacto dos aumentos de salário sobre a qualidade dos professores atuais e dos potenciais futuros professores. Avaliamos o impacto de aumentos de salário sobre o desempenho dos professores no ENADE, uma proxy de sua qualidade, e sobre a atratividade dos cursos de ensino superior associados à carreira docente. Essa atratividade é medida por meio da qualidade dos que entram nos respectivos cursos superiores, de acordo com seu desempenho no Enem. Neste último capítulo, aplicamos modelo de Tripla-Diferenças visando controlar dois tipos de potenciais fatores de confusão: (i) mudanças no desempenho dos professores (potenciais futuros professores) entre grupos de municípios, que foram submetidos ao tratamento e os que não foram tratados, que nada têm a ver com a política; e (ii) as alterações no desempenho de todos os professores (alunos) que vivem no município em que houve a elevação salarial devido à introdução da lei. As estimativas obtidas indicam que a elevação salarial gerou efeitos leves sobre a qualidade dos professores e sobre a atratividade dos cursos relacionados à carreira docente.

The consequences of the culture aspect and the power distance in the execution of global strategies in multinational companies in Brazil

One of the challenges presented by the current conjecture in Global Companies is to recognize and understand that the culture and levels in structure of the Power Distance in Organizations in different countries contribute, significantly, toward the failure or success of their strategies. The alignment between the implementation and execution of new strategies for projects intended for the success of the Organization as a whole, rather than as an individual part thereof, is an important step towards reducing the impacts of Power Distance (PDI) on the success of business strategies. A position at odds with this understanding by Companies creates boundaries that increase organizational chasms, also taking into consideration relevant aspects such as, FSAs (Firm-Specific Advantages) and CSAs (Country-Specific Advantages). It is also important that the Organizations based in countries or regions of low Power Distance (PDI) between its individuals be more flexible and prepared to ask and to hear the suggestions from Regional and Local Offices. Thus, the purpose of this study is to highlight the elements of effective strategy implementation considering the relevant aspects at all levels of global corporate culture that justify the influences of power distance when implementing new strategies and also to minimize the impacts of this internal business relationship. This study also recognizes that other corporate and cultural aspects are relevant for the success of business strategies so consider, for instance, the lack of alignment between global and regional/local organizations, the need for competent leadership resources, as well as the challenges that indicate the distance between the hierarchical levels ─ Headquarters and Regional Office ─ as some of the various causes that prevent the successful execution of global strategies. Finally, we show that the execution of the strategy cannot be treated as a construction solely created by the Headquarters or by only one Board and that it needs to be understood as a system aimed at interacting with the surroundings.

Capital structure in Brazil : review of studies during the period of 1988-2003

A systematic review was made of studies regarding the capital structure in Brazil during the period of 1988-2003. The recurring themes relate to the static tradeoff and pecking order in various moments of the economy, the fiscal benefits of indebtedness and interest on privately-owned capital, and the inefficacies of the stock market. The Brazilian companies enjoy little leverage as compared to other emerging markets. BNDES is responsible for 5% of the gross formation of fixed capital. The funding of resources occurs at opportune moments, and the financing decision may precede that of investment. Efficacy of the judiciary system and company transparency positively affect access to credit.

Volatility of returns, variations in prices and volume traded: evidence from the main stocks in Brazil

We study the relationship between the volatility and the price of stocks and the impact that variables such as past volatility, financial gearing, interest rates, stock return and turnover have on the present volatility of these securities. The results show the persistent behavior of volatility and the relationship between interest rate and volatility. The results also showed that a reduction in stock prices are associated with an increase in volatility. Finally we found a greater trading volume tends to increase the volatility.

Analysts’ recommendations in Brazil: do they add value?

This paper examines the value of analysts’ recommendations in Brazilian Stock Market. We studied a sample of 294 weeks of recommendations make public by the best seller newspaper in Brazil with six different investment strategies and time horizons. The main conclusion is that it is possible to beat the Brazilian market indexes Ibovespa and IBrX following the analysts’ stock recommendations. The best strategies are buying only the recommended stocks, buying the recommended stocks whose target and market prices difference is bigger than 25% and lesser or equal than 50%. The performance of the six strategies is analyzed through the use of bootstrap and Monte Carlo techniques.

An evaluation of the Business Model Canvas by technology-oriented startups in Brazil : a qualitative study about the usage of the tool by Brazilian entrepreneurs

The following paper was conducted with the support of several entrepreneurs and startups from Brazil. The aim of the research was to find out which impact the Business Model Canvas, further abbreviated as BMC, has on technology-oriented startups in Brazil. The first step of the study was identify some general concepts of entrepreneurship, as well as the conditions and environment of the country. Afterwards, it was focused on defining and comparing different business model tools and concepts to the BMC. After the literature review and meeting with several professionals in the area of entrepreneurship and startups, a questionnaire was formulated in order to conduct the qualitative study and identify the main impact of the tool. The questionnaire was answered by ten startups. In order to check the validity and credibility of the research outcomes, theory and investigator triangulation was used. As a result, the usage of the BMC could be evaluated by obtaining the outcomes and the theory, which showed that Brazilian tech startups are using Osterwalder’s model for the reason of idea creation and testing, validating and pivoting their business model. Interestingly, the research revealed that the entrepreneurs are using the tool often not in the traditional way of printing it, but rather applying it as a thinking approach. Besides, the entrepreneurs are focusing mostly on developing a strong Value Proposition, Customer Segment and sustainable Revenue Streams, while afterwards the remaining building blocks are built. Moreover, the research showed that the startups are using also other concepts, such as the Customer Development Process or Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop. These methodologies are often applied together with the BMC and helps to identify the most sustainable components of the business idea. Keywords: Business

International entry modes in Brazil and the CAGE distances effects

The international entry mode choices have a relevant importance for the impact they have on successful internationalization strategies. Many theories have been developed to describe which entry mode may be better than another according to the particular situation. The CAGE Distances Framework developed by Ghemawat to identify which dimensions companies should look when develop an internationalization strategy, may be useful to identify also how those dimensions impact on the international entry mode decision. The aim of this thesis is to study which kind of relationship exists between Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic Distances and international entry mode choice. It analyzes a sample of companies that have been entered in Brazil through a logistic regression. According to this analysis, a negative and significant relation between Cultural Distance and need of control exists, a positive one exists between Administrative and Geographic, while no significant relationship has been found with the Economic dimension. Those findings are conceivably explainable through the theories found by scholars, but a deeper analysis that may take into account the specificity of every country is highly recommended, like the one developed with Brazil in this thesis.

Social entrepreneurship practices and social change In Brazil: a qualitative study in three non-governmental organizations

Social Entrepreneurship (SE) has attracted growing interest from a wide variety of actors over the last 30 years, especially due to a general agreement that it could be an important tool for tackling many of the world’s social ills. In the academic sphere, this growing interest did not translate into a matured field of study. Quite the opposite, a quick look at this literature makes it evident that: SE has been consistently subjected to numerous theoretical discussions and disagreements, especially over the definition of the concept of SE which is often based on a taken-for-granted notion of social change; it has been more systematically investigated in restricted contexts, often leaving aside so called developing/emerging countries like Brazil and especially lacking in-depth qualitative studies; SE literature lags behind SE practices and few studies focus on how SE actually occurs in a daily and bottom-up manner. In order to address such gaps, this thesis examines how social entrepreneurship practices accomplish social change in the context of Brazil. In this investigation I conducted an inductive practice-based, qualitative/ethnographic study in three Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) located in different cities in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Data collection lasted from February 2014 until March 2015 and was mainly done through participant observations and through in-depth unstructured conversations with research participants. Secondary data and documents were also collected whenever available. The participants of this study included a variety of the studied organizations’ stakeholders: two founders, volunteers, employees, donors and beneficiaries. Observation data was kept in fieldnotes, conversations were recorded whenever possible and were later transcribed. Data was analyzed through an iterative thematic analysis. Through this I identified eight recurrent themes in the data: (1) structure; (2) relationship with other organizational actors (sub-themes: relationship with state, relationship with businesses and relationship with other NGOs); (3) beliefs, spirituality and moral authority; (4) social position of participants, (5) stakeholders’ mobilization and participation; (6) feelings; (7) social purpose; and (8) social change. These findings were later discussed under the lens of practice theory, and in this discussion I argue and show that, in the context studied: (a) even though SE embraces a wide variety of different social purposes, they are intertwined with a common notion of social change based on a general understanding and aspiration for social equality; (b) this social change is accomplished in a processual and ongoing manner as stakeholders from antagonistic social groups felt compelled to and participated in SE practices. In answering the proposed research question the contributions of this thesis are: (i) the elaboration a working definition for SE based on its relationship with social change; (ii) providing in-depth empirical evidence which accounts for and explains this relationship; (iii) characterizing SE in the Brazilian context and reflecting upon its transferability to other contexts. This thesis also makes a methodological contribution, for it demonstrates how thematic analysis can be used in practice-based studies.

The manufacturing industry in Brazil in the era of global value chains

This article presents a comprehensive and detailed overview of the international trade performance of the manufacturing industry in Brazil over the last decades, emphasizing its participation in Global Value Chains. It uses information from recent available global inputoutput tables such as WIOD (World Input-output database) and TIVA (Trade in Value Added, OECD) as well as complementary information from the GTAP 8 (Global Trade Analysis Project) database. The calculation of a broad set of value added type indicators allows a precise contextualization of the ongoing structural changes in the Brazilian industry, highlighting the relative isolation of its manufacturing sector from the most relevant international supply chains. This article also proposes a public policy discussion, presenting two case studies: the first one related to trade facilitation and the second one to preferential trade agreements. The main conclusions are twofold: first, the reduction of time delays at customs in Brazil may significantly improve the trade performance of its manufacturing industry, specially for the more capital intensive sectors which are generally the ones with greater potential to connection to global value chains; second, the extension of the concept of a “preferential trade partner” to the context of the global unbundling of production may pave the way to future trade policy in Brazil, particularly in the mapping of those partners whose bilateral trade relations with Brazil should receive greater priority by policy makers

Content marketing and brand engagement on social media: a study of Facebook´s posts in the ecommerce industry in Brazil

Content marketing refers to marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. It is focused not on selling, but on communicating with customers and prospects. In today world´s, a trend has been seen in brands becoming publishers in order to keep up with their competition and more importantly to keep their base of fans and followers. Content Marketing is making companies to engage consumers by publishing engaging and value-filled content. This study aims to investigate if there is a link between brand engagement and Facebook Content Marketing practices in the e-commerce industry in Brazil. Based on the literature review, this study defines brand engagement on Facebook as the numbers of "likes" "comments" and "shares" that a company receives from its fans. These actions reflect the popularity of the brand post and leads to engagement. The author defines a scale where levels of Content Marketing practices are developed in order to analyze brand posts on Facebook of an ecommerce company in Brazil. The findings reveal that the most important criterion for the company is the one regarding the picture of the post, where it examines whether the photo content is appealing to the audience. Moreover, it was perceived that the higher the level of these criterion in a post, the greater the number of likes, comments and shares the post receives. The time when a post is published does not present a significant role in determining customer engagement and the most important factor within a publication is to reach the maximum level in the Content Marketing Scale.

The creative and advanced technology economy in Brazil: executive summary

This document brings together in a succinct form the available data about the current state of the Creative and Advanced Technology Economy of Brazil, presents some suggestions for public policies which can contribute to the development of technological and creative activities, and also points to issues to be studied and actions to be carried out in the future.

Peer to peer lending and financial inclusion in Brazil: a case study

While pursuing the objective to investigate the potential for the P2P innovation to enhance financial inclusion in Brazil, the P2P industry and the current market environment were analyzed in order to highlight the factors that can facilitate this desired enhancement. There seems to be no doubt that there is substantial potential for the P2P industry worldwide and in Brazil but, beyond this, a considerable part of this industry could be providing financially inclusive products. The P2P industry in Brazil needs to recognize the potential for growing, not only the industry itself, but also the market for financially inclusive P2P products. The first section of this thesis focuses on financial inclusion briefly in order to establish the frame of what is being addressed. Subsequently the P2P industry is analyzed globally, locally in Brazil and with regard to financial inclusion. The study is conducted through an interview with the founder of a P2P platform in Brazil and its data collection is used to build a case study which allowed for an analysis of the potential for financial inclusion of the P2P industry and the development of key success factors with regard to converting this potential into results.