Infrastructure privatization in a neoclassical economy: macroeconomic impact and welfare computation

In this paper a competi tive general equilibrium model is used to investigate the welfare and long run allocation impacts of privatization. There are two types of capital in this model economy, one private and the other initially public ("infrastructure"), and a positive extemality due to the latter is assumed. A benevolent governrnent can improve upon decentralized allocation intemalizing the extemality, but it introduces distortions in the economy through the finance of its investments. It is shown that even making the best case for public action - maximization of individuais' welfare, no operation inefficiency and free supply to society of infrastructure services - privatization is welfare improving for a large set of economies. Hence, arguments against privatization based solely on under-investment are incorrect, as this maybe the optimal action when the financing of public investment are considered. When operation inefficiency is introduced in the public sector, gains from privatization are much higher and positive for most reasonable combinations of parameters.

Welfare and growth effects of alternative fiscal rules for infrastructure investment in Brazil

This article studies the interplay between fiscal rules, public investment and growth in Brazil. It is investigated if it would make sense to raise public investment and, if so, under which fiscal rule it is best to do it — whether through tax financing, debt financing, or a reduction of public consumption. We construct and simulate a competitive general equilibrium model, calibrated to Brazilian economy, in which public capital is a component of the production function and public consumption directly affects individuals’ well-being. After assessing the impacts of alternative fiscal rules, the paper concludes that the most desirable financing scheme is the reduction of public consumption, which dominates the others in terms of output and welfare gains. The model replicates the observed growth slowdown of the Brazilian economy when we increase taxes and reduce public capital formation to the levels observed after 1980 and shows that the growth impact of the expansion of tax collection in Brazil was much larger than that of public investment compression.

O desafio na contratação e elaboração de projetos para execução de obras rodoviárias: “o fator projeto”

O Governo brasileiro criou a partir de 2007 o PAC – Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento, um conjunto de projetos de infraestrutura no qual o DNIT ocupa posição de destaque com volume de recursos superior a R$ 58 bilhões. Desde o início do Programa o principal obstáculo é a insuficiência de projetos de qualidade. Projetos de engenharia são etapa crucial para o lançamento de licitações para obras de infraestrutura. Este gargalo de projeto, associado ao processo licitatório, é chamado de “fator projeto”. Em 2011 foi instituído o RDC – Regime Diferenciado de Contratações com o objetivo de remover estes entraves. Este trabalho surge da necessidade da Secretaria do Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento, vinculada ao Ministério do Planejamento, e do Departamento Nacional de Infraestrutura de Transportes, vinculado ao Ministério dos Transportes, de entender os desafios impostos pelo “fator projeto” na execução dos projetos relacionados às obras rodoviárias no âmbito do PAC. Para tanto, foram analisados os aspectos de contratação pela Administração Pública, enfatizando as mudanças ocorridas no processo licitatório corridas depois da vigência do Regime Diferenciado de Contratação (RDC) e as formas contemporâneas de relacionamentos pré-contratuais, abordando as parcerias publico-privadas (PPP), as manifestações de interesse da iniciativa privada (PMI) e os diálogos concorrenciais. Após uma apresentação do DNIT e do processo de institucionalização do RDC no âmbito da autarquia concluiu-se que três aspectos tem contribuído para minimizar os efeitos do “fator projeto”: O primeiro, de natureza procedimental, está diretamente relacionado com o efeito da implementação do novo regime licitatório. Em projetos complexos, como os da área de infraestrutura, o desenvolvimento de relações pré-contratuais trazem ganhos consideráveis, tanto para Administração Pública quanto para o ente privado, por promover a redução das assimetrias de informação e a lapidação do objeto a ser contratado. O segundo aspecto está relacionado com a natureza do DNIT. Trata-se de uma Autarquia com acúmulo de conhecimentos na área de engenharia e gestão de projetos. Ao adotar intensamente o RDC, mostrou capacidade instalada e avançou nos parâmetros de monitoramento e gestão de risco e gerou um conjunto normativo atual e adequado para enfrentar os desafios do novo regime de contrações. O terceiro aspecto também está relacionado com o aspecto institucional do DNIT. Trata-se de sua estrutura organizacional, que influencia a governança dos processos licitatórios e que agrega dois predicados: segurança na responsabilização entre os diretores-membros quando partilham uma decisão e salvaguarda do corpo técnico para uma postura mais republicana. Estes tres aspectos levaram a uma maior eficácia e efetividade da Autarquia, minimizaram o "fator projeto". O Relatório de Gestão do DNIT de 2012 cita que no RDC há a redução de até 50% no tempo do processo licitatório em relação às modalidades concorrência e Tomada de Preços. A implementação do RDC Eletrônico, que possibilita a participação de empresas de todo o país, aumentou a competitividade e ajudou a executar R$ 10,2 bilhões em obras e serviços em infraestrutura de transportes.

Mecanismo LPVR - Least Present Value of Revenues como mitigador de riscos em concessões rodoviárias: uma aplicação a um caso brasileiro

Nos últimos anos o governo brasileiro tem adotado a postura de incentivo a projetos de infraestrutura, sendo as concessões rodoviárias um dos principais mecanismos. Muito se discute sobre a melhor forma de remuneração das concessionárias, sem que, ao mesmo tempo, os usuários não tenham um custo elevado e possam usufruir de bons serviçoes prestados.Essa discussão passa, principalmente, por uma análise de risco de tráfego, que hoje é inteiramente alocado as cconcessionárias. A metodologia utilizada nos últimos leilões segue uma exigência de Taxa Interna de Retorno ( TIR ) máxima, pelo Poder Concedente ( ANTT ), em termos reais e um prazo de concessão fixo. A partir de custos e investimentos estimados em determinada concessão, a ANTT define uma tarifa-teto a ser cobrada pela concessionária aos usuários através da TIR máxima exigida no projeto. Esta TIR é calculada com base no custo médio ponderado de capital ( WACC ) de empresas do setor, que tem ações negociadas na BM&F Bovespa, utilizando-se apenas dados domésticos. Neste trabalho é proposto um modelo alternativo, baseado no menor valor presente das receitas ( LPVR - Least Present Value of Revenues ). Neste modelo observamos que o risco de tráfego é bem menor para a concessionária, pois a concessão só se expira quando determinado nível de receitas exigido pela concessionária é atingido. Ou seja, para tal, é necessário um modelo de prazo flexível. Neste mecanismo, entretanto, com menor risco de tráfego, o upside e o downside, em termos de retorno, são menores em comparação com o modelo vigente. Utilizando este modelo, o Poder Concedente pode também definir um vencedor para o leilão ( a concessionária que ofertar o menor valor presente das receitas ) e também se utilizar da proposta de simulação de tráfegos para a definição de um prazo máximo para a concessão, em caso de implementação do mecanismo proposto.

Henrique Novaes: técnica, território e cidade em uma trajetória profissional: Brasil, primeira metade do século XX

The career of civil engineer Henrique de Novaes, a remarkable figure in the academic, technical and political fields, demonstrates its extensive and relevant work across Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. It covered from the design of water supply and sewage works, road and rail transport networks, works against drought in the Northeast, hydroelectric and harbor facilities to the urbanization planning and architectural projects, which displays a systematic and multiple production. City and territory conformed to his fields of verification, practical and above all, transformation. The search for understanding of the inclusion of a social actor in this process thus contributes to the specific analysis of the doings of Henrique de Novaes, who graduated at Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro in 1906. From a polymorphic activity in different scales, one tries to figure how, through academic education or professional practice, urban history in Brazil can be told or built. The introduction of technological innovations matched the purposes of planning and urban sprawl, as well as met the specifications of regulation and institutionalization of public infrastructure services at the time. The overall plans proposed by the engineer thought of the city as a whole, interconnected to the structural networks. At the same time, the knowledge of a larger physical scale the territory bounces back in the urban in a relationship of reciprocity and completeness. The objective research, therefore, tries to understand the roles played by Henrique de Novaes s works and academic education in the accomplishment of systematic modernization of Brazilian urban space and territory, recovering a little known historical figure by current historiography. It is proposed, as methodological axis, that the study of this professional career configures itself as an essential element for understanding the idea of progress embodied in the technical studies and proposals for improvements and sanitation nationwide in the first half of the twentieth century . The primary sources for the construction of this analysis were technical articles in journals of the period ( Clube de Engenharia , Viação e Revista Brasileira de Engenharia ), and technical reports, government messages, newspaper articles published at the time, autobiographical reports and the engineer s verbal communications with relatives. The work is structured in three chapters: "Biographical traces, academic education and 'technical and political' activities" illustrates the initiation into the technical, public and political environment; Chapter 2, "Technique and territory" outlines his network understanding through sanitation and transport services; Chapter 3 "Technique and City" describes the influence of polytechnics knowledge on the propositions of modernization of cities; Finally, "Final Thoughts: An Evaluation," presents an overview of the affiliations and practice of an engineer in the different scales, and its contribution to the modernization of Brazilian urban and territorial space

Impact of Road Clearings on the Movements of Three Understory Insectivorous Bird Species in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

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

Object-Space Road Extraction in Rural Areas Using Stereoscopic Aerial Images

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

Three-Dimensional Semiautomatic Road Extraction From a High-Resolution Aerial Image by Dynamic-Programming Optimization in the Object Space

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

Território usado e transporte coletivo : mobilidade e acessibilidade no Bairro Lagoa Azul Natal/RN

Transport systems involved the use of territory in different Brazilian cities with regard to the occupation of road systems in urban areas. The implementation of systems engineering and transport infrastructure such as roads (roads), signs, stops, stations and complex road (bridges, viaducts and tunnels) are not used in the same way in the area. The subway is not even use the bus and vice versa. The time spent in travel, the time to access and the number of trips made by passengers in each way of transport is not the same. The use of transport systems in the territory, therefore, takes place through a whole in the current period we are in the technicalscientific and informational. This work addresses, however, the area used as a synonym of geographical area, analyzed by two categories of analysis, systems of objects formed by the fixed and the systems formed by the action flows. The system analyzed is the public transport by bus and population displacement that makes using this medium with source destination from home to work and has as empirical cut the Lagoa Azul located in the district administrative area north of Natal / RN. The general objective of this research is to understand the extent to which public transport has contributed to the socio-spatial accessibility of the residents of Barrio Blue Lagoon, located in Natal-RN, emphasizing the way home and the workplace. To reach the general objective of this dissertation, a study was made in light of the line which the methodological empirical facts, statistical data and theoretical knowledge of the events that occur in the quarter related to the Lagoa Azul economic aspects. Use for this, the concepts of mobility and Accessibility

Road-killed wild animals: a preservation problem useful for eco-epidemiological studies of pathogens

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

Molecular detection of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis in road-killed wild animals

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis infections have been little studied in wild and/or domestic animals, which may represent an important indicator of the presence of the pathogen in nature. Road-killed wild animals have been used for surveillance of vectors of zoonotic pathogens and may offer new opportunities for eco-epidemiological studies of paracoccidiodomycosis (PCM). The presence of P. brasiliensis infection was evaluated by Nested-PCR in tissue samples collected from 19 road-killed animals; 3 Cavia aperea (guinea pig), 5 Cerdocyon thous (crab-eating-fox), 1 Dasypus novemcinctus (nine-banded armadillo), 1 Dasypus septemcinctus (seven-banded armadillo), 2 Didelphis albiventris (white-eared opossum), 1 Eira barbara (tayra), 2 Gallictis vittata (grison), 2 Procyon cancrivorus (raccoon) and 2 Sphiggurus spinosus (porcupine). Specific P. brasiliensis amplicons were detected in (a) several organs of the two armadillos and one guinea pig, (b) the lung and liver of the porcupine, and (c) the lungs of raccoons and grisons. P. brasiliensis infection in wild animals from endemic areas might be more common than initially postulated. Molecular techniques can be used for detecting new hosts and mapping 'hot spot' areas of PCM.

De Sitter Relativity: a New Road to Quantum Gravity?

The Poincar, group generalizes the Galilei group for high-velocity kinematics. The de Sitter group is assumed to go one step further, generalizing Poincar, as the group governing high-energy kinematics. In other words, ordinary special relativity is here replaced by de Sitter relativity. In this theory, the cosmological constant I > is no longer a free parameter, and can be determined in terms of other quantities. When applied to the whole universe, it is able to predict the value of I > and to explain the cosmic coincidence. When applied to the propagation of ultra-high energy photons, it gives a good estimate of the time delay observed in extragalactic gamma-ray flares. It can, for this reason, be considered a new paradigm to approach the quantum gravity problem.

Atmospheric particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from road transport in southeast Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)