The Limits of political compromise: debt ceilings and political competition

We study the desirability of limits on the public debt and of political competition in an economy where political parties alternate in office. Due to rent-seeking motives, incumbents have an incentive to set public expenditures above the socially optimal level. Parties cannot commit to future policies, but they can forge a political compromise where each party curbs excessive spending when in office if it expects future governments to do the same. In contrast to the received literature, we find that strict limits on government borrowing can exacerbate political-economy distortions by rendering a political compromise unsustainable. This tends to happen when political competition is limited. Conversely, a tight limit on the public debt fosters a compromise that yields the efficient outcome when political competition is vigorous, saving the economy from immiseration. Our analysis thus suggests a legislative tradeoff between restricting political competition and constraining the ability of governments to issue debt.

Foreign support, internal political disputes and mass killings

This paper studies the incentives underlying the relations between foreign countries and rival domestic groups. It models the interaction in a infinitely-repeated game between these three players. The domestic groups bargain for a split of the domestic surplus and may engage in violent dispute for power and in unilateral mass killing processes. The foreign country may choose to support one of these groups in exchange for monetary transfers. The paper characterizes the parametric set in which strategies leading to no violent disputes nor mass killings are Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibra in the presence of foreign support, but not in its absence.

Spatial spillovers and political coordination in public health provision

We estimate the impact of the main unconditional federal grant (Fundo de Participaçãodos Municípios - FPM) to Brazilian municipalities as well as its spillover from the neighboring cities on local health outcomes. We consider data from 2002 to 2007 (Brollo et al, 2013) and explore the FPM distribution rule according to population brackets to apply a fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) using cities near the thresholds. In elasticity terms, we nd a reduction on infant mortality rate (-0.18) and on morbidity rate (- 0.41), except in the largest cities of our sample. We also nd an increase on the access to the main program of visiting the vulnerable families, the Family Health Program (Programa Sa ude da Família - PSF). The e ects are stronger for the smallest cities of our sample and we nd increase: (i) On the percentage of residents enrolled in the program (0.36), (ii) On the per capita number of PSF visits (1.59), and (iii) On the per capita number of PSF visits with a doctor (1.8) and nurse (2). After we control for the FPM spillover using neighboring cities near diferent thresholds, our results show that the reduction in morbidity and mortality is largely due to the spillover e ect, but there are negative spillover on preventive actions, as PSF doctors visits and vaccination. Finally, the negative spillover e ect on health resources may be due free riding or political coordination problems, as in the case of the number of hospital beds, but also due to to competition for health professionals, as in the case of number of doctors (-0.35 and -0.87, respectively), specially general practitioners and surgeons (-1.84 and -2.45).

Compreendendo como as crianças significam o direito de brincar

This research aimed to understand how children mean the right to play. For that, assumes that the children composed a social category generational, with children experiencing their own skills, the result of the mediated relationship with the social and its transformative capacity. Adding to that, they are subject of duties with competence to means your own condition. After a long history of repression and an intense political struggle, the Doctrine of Integral Protection is inaugurated in Brazil and the Citizen (1889), which regulates the fundamental rights of all children and adolescents. Among these rights is the right to play. However, it is sufficient to provide by law, it is necessary to break with the diminishment of the play activity, still present in our society, watching it as a structuring activity of the subject and ensuring the enforcement of this right. Considering the child as the central focus of research, the research was conducted in a public school education. The subjects were six children of six years old, enrolled in 1st year of elementary school. The procedures employed for constituting the corpus of the research were: observation of children at school meetings and dialogue, monitoring of play resources such as drawings, cartoons and representative images of child rights. Also, the parents were interviewed with the goal to enlarge the understanding the context of the child. With the thematic content analysis, we raise two areas: play and children's rights. The results showed that children, however don‟t have a systematized knowledge about child rights , they understand that any elements are important for the children and your development, being the play the most recurrent, followed by education and family. The right to play configure as a necessity of the child, that even if she does not understand conceptually as a right, she feels the importance of living of the play activity

e-Government architectures, technical and political situation in Latin America

Includes bibliography

The political economy of HIV

Includes bibliography

The political economy of natural gas in Trinidad and Tobago

Includes bibliography

The political economy of Mexico's dollarization debate

Includes bibliography

Development cycles, political regimes and international migration: Argentina in the 20th century

Includes bibliography

Governance crisis and the Andean region: a political economy analysis

Includes bibliography

Political violence and economic development in Latin America: issues and evidence

Includes bibliography

Asset accumulation by the middle class and the poor in Latin America: political economy and governance dimensions

Includes bibliography

The elusive goal of regional development: between the black box and the political agenda

Includes bibliography

A political economy analysis of import tariff policy in Brazil: 1980-1988

Includes bibliography