Yet another reason to tax goods

The optimal taxation of goods, labor and capital income is considered in a two period model where: i) private information changes through time; ii) savings are not observed, and; iii) savings a§ect preferences conditional on the realization of types. The simultaneous appearance of these three elements cause optimal commodity taxes to depend on o§-equilibrium savings. As a consequence, separability no longer su¢ ces for the uniform taxation prescription of Atkinson and Stiglitz (AS) to obtain. If preferences are homothetic AS is partially restored: taxes are uniform within periods, however, future consumption is taxed at a higher rate than current consumption.

Optimal taxation with gradual learning of types

An important feature of life-cycle models is the presence of uncertainty regarding one’s labor income. Yet this issue, long recognized in different areas, has not received enough attention in the optimal taxation literature. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. We write a simple 3 period model where agents gradually learn their productivities. In a framework akin to Mirrlees’ (1971) static one, we derive properties of optimal tax schedules and show that: i) if preferences are (weakly) separable, uniform taxation of goods is optimal, ii) if they are (strongly) separable capital income is to rate than others forms of investiment.

Demand aggregation and credit risk effects in pooled procurement: evidence from the Brazilian public purchases of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies

Pooled procurement has an important role in reducing acquisition prices of goods. A pool of buyers, which aggregates demand for its members, increases bargaining power and allows suppliers to achieve economies of scale and scope in the production. Such aggregation demand e ect lowers prices paid for buyers. However, when a buyer with a good reputation for paying suppliers in a timely manner is joined in the pool by a buyer with bad reputation may have its price paid increased due to the credit risk e ect on prices. This will happen because prices paid in a pooled procurement should refect the (higher) average buyers' credit risk. Using a data set on Brazilian public purchases of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, we nd evidence supporting both e ects. We show that the prices paid by public bodies in Brazil are lower when they buy through pooled procurement than individually. On the other hand, federal agencies (i.e. good buyers) pay higher prices for products when they are joined by state agencies (i.e. bad buyers) in a pool. Such evidence suggests that pooled procurement should be carefully designed to avoid that prices paid increase for its members.

Estimating the effect of discretionary spending on corruption: evidence from Brazilian municipalities

O presente artigo estuda a relação entre corrupção e discricionariedade do gasto público ao responder a seguinte pergunta: regras de licitação mais rígidas, uma proxy para discricionariedade, resultam em menor prevalência de corrupção nos municípios brasileiros? A estratégia empírica é uma aproximação de regressões em dois estágios (2SLS) estimadas localmente em cada transição de regras de licitação, cuja fonte de dados de corrupção é o Programa de Fiscalização por Sorteio da CGU e os dados sobre discricionariedade são derivados da Lei 8.666/93, responsável por regular os processos de compras e construção civil em todas as esferas de governo. Os resultados mostram, entretanto, que menor discricionariedade está relacionada com maior corrupção para quase todos os cortes impostos pela lei de licitações.

Sustentabilidade das empresas associadas à REDEPETRO-RN

The present study investigated the management of social, environmental and economic sustainability practices employed by 72 oil companies in Rio Grande do Norte state in Brazil associated to Joint Business Network for Enhancing the Competitive Ability of Suppliers of Goods and Services to the Gas and Oil Industry in Rio Grande do Norte (REDEPETRO-RN). Thus, our investigation aimed to determine the extent to which sustainability practices of companies associated to REDEPETRO-RN are developed through their own efforts or influenced by the Triple Helix interorganizational arrangement (governamental organizations, education and research institutions, and industries). The research instrument used was a questionnaire in order to map and characterize the sustainability practices. The research subjects were business owners and managers. The data collected supported the descriptive, correspondence and correlation analyzes. Were identified a greater emphasis of the companies surveyed in developing sustainability practices and greater economic influence of business organizations in the construction of sustainability status. It was concluded with confirmation of thesis of the REDEPETRO-RN arrangement exhibits the characteristics and functioning of a common Interorganizational Cooperative Arrangement, not those of a triple helix interorganizational arrangement, given that the influences exerted for the development of social, environmental and economical sustainability on the part of teaching and research institutions, and government and business organizations do not interact with one another sufficiently to create a virtuous circle of cooperation among the associated companies. By contrast, the Interorganizational Cooperative Arrangement plays an important role in strengthening the competitiveness of companies affiliated to REDEPETRO-RN, by combining different competencies in an attempt at supporting the adoption of sustainability practices, a role reinforced by the scope of PETROBRAS, which, due to its economic importance, has considerable weight in the managerial decisions of associated companies

Soil profile, relief features and their relation to structure and distribution of Brazilian Atlantic rain forest trees

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

Influence of canine brain decomposition on laboratory diagnosis of rabies.

Canine brains infected with rabies virus were submitted to decomposition by being left at room temperature of 25 to 29 degrees C for up to 168 h. At 24 h intervals, brain fragments were analyzed by immunofluorescence (IF) and by the mouse intracerebral inoculation (MI) test to confirm the diagnosis of rabies and to measure the putrefaction effect on the accuracy of the diagnosis. Forty eight h after the beginning of the experiment, the MI test showed signs of impairment with four negative results, while after 72 h, 100% of the results were negative to the MI test and only one result was negative to the IF test, indicating that the threshold period for accurate diagnosis is 24 to 48 h before putrefaction. The authors recommend the shipment of suspected cases of rabies to the laboratory for confirmation, but the use of putrid materials for diagnosis is meaningless because of false-negative results.

Energy and the AdS/CFT correspondence

We consider a scalar field theory on AdS in both minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. We show that there exist constraints which arise in the quantization of the scalar field theory on AdS which cannot be reproduced through the usual AdS/CFT prescription. We argue that the usual energy, defined through the stress-energy tensor, is not the natural one to be considered in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We analyze a new definition of the energy which makes use of the Noether current corresponding to time displacements in global coordinates. We compute the new energy for Dirichlet, Neumann and mixed boundary conditions on the scalar field and for both the minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. Then, we perform the quantization of the scalar field theory on AdS showing that, for 'regular' and 'irregular' modes, the new energy is conserved, positive and finite. We show that the quantization gives rise, in a natural way, to a generalized AdS/CFT prescription which maps to the boundary all the information contained in the bulk. In particular, we show that the divergent local terms of the on-shell action contain information about the Legendre transformed generating functional, and that the new constraints for which the irregular modes propagate in the bulk are the same constraints for which such divergent local terms cancel out. In this situation, the addition of counterterms is not required. We also show that there exist particular cases for which the unitarity bound is reached, and the conformai dimension becomes independent of the effective mass. This phenomenon has no bulk counterpart.

Chronological Monte Carlo-based assessment of distribution system reliability

Regulatory authorities in many countries, in order to maintain an acceptable balance between appropriate customer service qualities and costs, are introducing a performance-based regulation. These regulations impose penalties, and in some cases rewards, which introduce a component of financial risk to an electric power utility due to the uncertainty associated with preserving a specific level of system reliability. In Brazil, for instance, one of the reliability indices receiving special attention by the utilities is the Maximum Continuous Interruption Duration per customer (MCID). This paper describes a chronological Monte Carlo simulation approach to evaluate probability distributions of reliability indices, including the MCID, and the corresponding penalties. In order to get the desired efficiency, modern computational techniques are used for modeling (UML -Unified Modeling Language) as well as for programming (Object- Oriented Programming). Case studies on a simple distribution network and on real Brazilian distribution systems are presented and discussed. © Copyright KTH 2006.

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2006

Includes bibliography

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2007

Includes bibliography

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2010-2011: Internacional integration and macroeconomic policy challenges amid global economic turmoil

Includes bibliography

Review of Caribbean economic and social performance in the 1980's and 1990's

Includes bibliography

Opportunities for convergence and regional cooperation: Unity Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes Bibliography