Land taxes in a Latin American context

Since Henry George (1839-1897) economists have been arguing that a tax on unimproved land is an ideal tax on efficiency grounds. Output taxes, on the other hand, have distortionary effects on the economy. This paper shows that under asymmetric information output taxes might be used along with land tax in order to implement an optimal taxation scheme in a Latin American context, i.e., where land rental markets are relatively thin, land property provides non-agricultural payoffs and there is nonrevenue objectives of land taxation. Also, the model has two implications that can be tested empirically: (i) there is evasion when schemes based only on land taxes are implemented; (ii) this evasion is more severe for large landholders.

REPETRO - Regime Aduaneiro Especial de Importação e Exportação de Bens Destinados à Pesquisa e Lavra de Petróleo e Gás: análise dos entraves e propostas de soluções

REPETRO, the special tax regime for importing and exporting goods for the exploration and drilling of oil and gas, aims at bringing foreign assets to Brazil enjoying a suspension or even an exemption of taxes, so that Brazilian industry may profit from about 8 billion American dollars in investments. The creation of normative devices as well as the management of the REPETRO model are under the exclusive responsibility of the Brazilian Internal Revenue Services. REPETRO was created in 1999 and is composed of the following customs treatments: importation of goods with suspension of taxes by use of the drawback special regime, suspension mode for national exporting industry; exportation with fictitious exit for the national industry; temporary admission of goods or assets used in oil exploration and production, attending to the needs of both the national and foreign market. Considering the inability of the Brazilian government in restructuring its foreign trade model so that a strong investment in technology could provide for the sector¿s needs, we must ask how we can change REPETRO to help the various companies in the oil business? The issue is very important for one of our main economic activities, though not enough studied. The energy sector has a strategic importance for the development and the economic independence of any country. The winds of globalization lead Brazil to open its economy in the last decade and the national policy for exploration and drilling (E&D) was altered. The government created a new agency dedicated to market control and energy policies, the National Agency for Oil and Biofuels (ANP). With the opening of the market, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras, the Brazilian giant, lost the monopoly of the oil business. The P-50 Platform, with a capacity for 180,000 barrels per day, was imported based on REPETRO. When it began operating on April 21st, 2006, Brazil achieved self-sufficiency in oil production. The present work intends to estimate the main variables affecting the importation and exportation of goods and assets for E&D, showing how REPETRO works. We also intend to look at the results yielded by the REPETRO model for the development of the production of oil and gas in Brazil, as well as show proposals for its modernization. It has been established that even though since its implementation the REPETRO model has brought fiscal advantages through the reduction of tax costs relating to foreign commerce operations and the incentive of investments in the E&D area with the increase in the national oil production there remain the following limitations: lack of preparation and of knowledge of the model; lack of adjustement of the model to the reality of actitity of E&D of oil and gas; taxes over the pre-operational stage or investment in oil production stage; non-allowance of full access by the national industry to the supply of goods and products relating to the industrialization of goods allowed by REPETRO; other fiscal and administrative difficulties. We conclude that the REPETRO model is important for the development of the area of E&D of oil and gas, but not completely effective. It is necessary to change it or create a new model based on a new perspective of the customs treatment of the activities of exploration and production, minimizing administrative procedures relating to the operations of exportation and importation.

Optimal regulation of oil fields under asymmetric information

Neste trabalho é analisada a relação entre um regulador e uma empresa petrolífera. Há várias incertezas inerentes à essa relação e o trabalho se concentra nos efeitos da assimetria de informação. Fazemos a caracterização da regulação ótima sob informação assimétrica, quando o regulador deve desenhar um mecanismo que induz a firma a revelar corretamente sua informação privada. No caso em que a rma não pode se comprometer a não romper o acordo, mostramos que o regulador pode não implementar o resultado ótimo que é obtido sob informação completa. Nesse caso, o regulador não consegue compartilhar os riscos com a firma de forma ótima. Por fim, é apresentado um exemplo, em que mostramos que a condição de Spence-Mirrlees (SMC) pode não valer. Esse resultado aparece de forma natural no modelo.

Are real options a real option for real-world finance professionals? case study : the application of real options to evaluate investment projects in the latin american oil and gas field services industry

Brasil e outros mercados emergentes continuarão a apresentar muitas oportunidades de investimento nos próximos anos. Profissionais financeiros que gerenciam os processos de orçamento de capital nas empresas terão grandes desafios a enfrentar. Características específicas destes projetos como preços ligados a commodities (por exemplo: petróleo e gás e projetos agrícolas) e as incertezas habituais relacionadas com os mercados emergentes são desafios adicionais. Neste cenário, ferramentas mais sofisticadas de orçamento de capital como Opções Reais, oferece uma teoria mais robusta para lidar com incerteza, flexibilidade gerencial, e os resultados voláteis embutidas nestas oportunidades. A teoria de Opções Reais assume que o envolvimento dos gestores nos projetos gera valor à medida que potencializam os bons resultados ou reduzem as perdas por abandonar projetos com maus resultados. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa foi aplicar a análise de Opções Reais para um projeto de investimento e discutir o processo e os resultados da metodologia. O estudo de caso analisa retroativamente um projeto de investimento na Colômbia e compara os resultados sob o tradicional VPL e Opções Reais. As técnicas de avaliação foram realizadas como se estivessem sendo aplicadas no momento em que o projeto foi aprovado, e depois comparadas com o desempenho real do projeto. O estudo de caso avaliado possui dois tipos de Opções Reais: primeiro, o efeito de uma opção para cancelar um contrato que é analisado a partir da perspectiva do cliente que pode exercer essa opção, e o segundo, a opção de abandonar e adiar a partir da perspectiva da empresa que irá executar a investimento.

Pricing and hedging of oil futures : a unifying approach

We develop and empirically test a continuous time equilibrium model for the pricing of oil futures. The model provides a link between no-arbitrage models and expectation oriented models. It highlights the role of inventories for the identification of different pricing regimes. In an empirical study the hedging performance of our model is compared with five other one- and two-factor pricing models. The hedging problem considered is related to Metallgesellschaft´s strategy to hedge long-term forward commitments with short-term futures. The results show that the downside risk distribution of our inventory based model stochastically dominates those of the other models.

The optimality of the Friedman rule when some distorting taxes are exogenous

This paper investigates the optimality of the Friedman rule in a two-sector small open economy. That policy prescription is found to be a necessary condition for Pareto efficiency. If a planner can select all conceivable distorting taxes, then, for some initial values of public debt, money balances and foreign assets, it is possible to decentralize a Pareto efficient allocation. If the planner can select only some of these tax rates, then second-best policies may also satisfy the Friedman rule. However, this last result depends on the set of tax instruments the planner can choose from.

Sustainable miracles : protection and competition in the Brazilian oil industry

It is often suggested that competition improves productivity, however, the underlying support for this idea is surprisingly thin. This paper presents a case study examining the e ects of a change in the competitive environment on productivity at the Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil company. Petrobras had a legal monopoly on production, re ning, transportation and importation of oil in Brazil until it was removed in 1995. Even though Petrobras continues to have a de facto monopoly, the end of legal monopoly labor productivity growth rate more than doubled. A growth accounting of the industry shows that between 1977 and 1993 output growth rate (and productivity growth rate) is explained by the accumulation of capital, while Total Factor Productivity (TFP) decreased. Between 1994 and 2000 labor productivity growth rate is completely explained by the growth rate of TFP. The results suggest that the threat of competition alone is su cient to improve productivity. They also provide evidence that restricting competition help cause Brazil's depression of the 1980s.

Novos arranjos na distribuição dos royalties do petróleo: uma análise do debate no Brasil e sua convergência com outras reformas da América Latina

Ainda que aprovada em 2012, a Lei dos Royalties do Petróleo (Lei 12.374 de 2012) ainda não entrou em vigor por conta de uma decisão do Supremo Tribunal Federal de suspender os dispositivos que estabelecem uma nova distribuição das receitas do petróleo entre os Estados brasileiros. A análise da discussão apresentada no Senado do Projeto de Lei que precedeu à Lei 12.374 revelou que não apenas a normativa aprovada não gerou ganhadores nem perdedores absolutos, uma vez que há questões do pacto federativo que são ambíguas e, em consequência, suscetíveis de conflitos, como também que a distribuição das rendas provenientes do petróleo entre todas as Unidades da Federação não foi uma disputa interna e isolada no Senado brasileiro entre argumentos sobre concentrar ou universalizar os recursos do petróleo, pelo contrário, foi demostrado que existe na região latino-americana uma tendência de aumentar os royalties e os impostos para serem destinados a políticas sociais que beneficiem a todo o país, e não apenas os Estados produtores de petróleo.

Oil price shocks and policy implications the emergence of U.S. tight oil production: a case study

How have shocks to supply and demand affected global oil prices; and what are key policy implications following the resurgence of oil production in the United States? Highlights: − The recent collapse in global oil prices was dominated by oversupply. − The future of tight oil in the United States is vulnerable to obstacles beyond oil prices. − Opinions on tight oil from the Top 25 think tank organizations are considered. Global oil prices have fallen more than fifty percent since mid-2014. While price corrections in the global oil markets resulted from multiple factors over the past twelve months, surging tight oil production from the United States was a key driver. Tight oil is considered an unconventional or transitional oil source due to its location in oil-bearing shale instead of conventional oil reservoirs. These qualities make tight oil production fundamentally different from regular crude, posing unique challenges. This case study examines these challenges and explores how shocks to supply and demand affect global oil prices while identifying important policy considerations. Analysis of existing evidence is supported by expert opinions from more than one hundred scholars from top-tier think tank organizations. Finally, implications for United States tight oil production as well as global ramifications of a new low price environment are explored.

Brazilian competitiveness on international trade

In recent years, Brazil benefited from foreign trade expansion and its exports of goods grew by 16.5%. If this strong growth trend keeps up for the next years, today’s bottlenecks may have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the country’s products in the global market. This is especially critical for one of the main “green fuels” producers in a scenario where the demand for this energy source grows due to rising oil prices and environmental concerns. Based on a survey that collected data from 250 Brazilian exporters, this study focuses on the constraints that reduce the competitiveness of exports. This study differs from previous ones in that it considers the professionals directly involved with export activities and evaluates different aspects, including logistics, operations, taxes, legal, bureaucratic and informational ones. Results show that the most important constraints strongly affect costs and delivery reliability

Headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with mass spectrometry as a powerful analytical tool for profiling the terpenoid metabolomic pattern of hop-essential oil derived from Saaz variety

Hop(HumuluslupulusL.,Cannabaceaefamily)isprizedforitsessentialoilcontents,usedin beer production and, more recently, in biological and pharmacological applications. In this work,a methodinvolvingheadspace solid-phase microextractionand gas chromatography– mass spectrometry was developed and optimized to establish the terpenoid (monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes) metabolomic pattern of hop-essential oil derived from Saaz variety as a mean to explore this matrix as a powerful biological source for newer, more selective, biodegradable and naturally produced antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds. Different parameters affecting terpenoid metabolites extraction by headspace solid-phase microextraction were considered and optimized: type of fiber coatings, extraction temperature, extraction time, ionic strength, and sample agitation. In the optimized method, analytes were extracted for 30 min at 40 C in the sample headspace with a 50/30 m divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane coating fiber. The methodology allowed the identification of a total of 27 terpenoid metabolites, representing 92.5% of the total Saaz hop-essential oil volatile terpenoid composition. The headspace composition was dominated by monoterpenes (56.1%, 13 compounds), sesquiterpenes (34.9%, 10), oxygenated monoterpenes (1.41%, 3), and hemiterpenes (0.04%, 1) some of which can probably contribute to the hop of Saaz variety aroma. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the main metabolites are the monoterpene -myrcene (53.0±1.1% of the total volatile fraction), and the cyclic sesquiterpenes, -humulene (16.6 ± 0.8%), and -caryophyllene (14.7 ± 0.4%), which together represent about 80% of the total volatile fraction from the hop-essential oil. Thesefindingssuggestthatthismatrixcanbeexploredasapowerfulbiosourceofterpenoid metabolites.

Volatile Oil of Psidium cattleianum Sabine from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effect of Urucu oil (Brazilian Amazon) on the biomass of the aquatic macrophyte Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (Pontederiaceae)

Os rios e lagos de várzea da província petrolífera de Urucu, na Amazônia Central, são amplamente colonizados por macrófitas aquáticas, que podem ser afetadas por acidentes durante a exploração e o transporte de petróleo. Entre as macrófitas, a espécie flutuante Eichhornia crassipes (aguapé) ocorre abundantemente na região; OBJETIVO: O objetivo desse estudo foi verificar o efeito de diferentes dosagens do petróleo de Urucu (0; 0,5; 1,5 e 3,0 L.m-2) na biomassa viva e morta de E. crassipes e em algumas características físicas e químicas da água; MÉTODOS: O experimento teve oitenta e quatro dias de duração. A cada sete dias foi determinada a biomassa (viva e morta) de E. crassipes e os valores de temperatura, pH, condutividade elétrica e oxigênio dissolvido da água; RESULTADOS: A dosagem de 0,5 L.m-2 foi suficiente para causar mortalidade parcial (48%) em E. crassipes após trinta e cinco dias de exposição ao petróleo. A dosagem de 3,0 L.m-2 causou mortalidade total (100%) em E. crassipes em oitenta e quatro dias de exposição. A decomposição do petróleo e da biomassa morta de E. crassipes provocam a redução do oxigênio dissolvido e do pH, e aumento da condutividade elétrica e de fósforo total na água; CONCLUSÕES: Nós concluímos que um derramamento de petróleo pode provocar mortalidade total em uma população de uma espécie de macrófita, mas não em uma outra. Isto pode alterar a diversidade de espécies de macrófitas na região impactada. No caso de Eichhornia crassipes e Pistia stratiotes, um derramamento de petróleo de Urucu pode favorecer E. crassipes, a espécie menos sensível ao petróleo.