Language and Identity at School and at Home : Language Shift among Mennonites in Paraguay

This essay has investigated the question of an ongoing language shift from Plattdeutsch and German to Spanish among the Mennonites in Paraguay and the role of the school in this process. The aims of the study were to compare the use of languages among the Mennonites in Asuncion and in the Menno colony and to identify the importance that parents give to the languages and to compare this with a school leader perspective. The aim was also to identify factors that influence the language shift and identify the influence that the shift excerpts on Mennonite values and identity. The results are based on my own observations, interviews with Mennonite women and interviews with key informants who have insight into the school policy issues. The outcome may be used as a basis for educational and language planning. There is a need to consciously sit down and re-define the Mennonite identity and to make the community and the school aware of their responsibility in language maintenance.

Brazilian indexing and inertial inflation: evidence from time-varying estimates of an inflation transfer function

This paper is a theoretica1 and empirica1 study of the re1ationship between indexing po1icy and feedback mechanisms in the inflationary adjustment process in Brazil. The focus of our study is on two policy issues: (1) did the Brazilian system of indexing of interest rates, the exchange rate, and wages make inflation so dependent on its own past values that it created a significant feedback process and inertia in the behaviour of inflation in and (2) was the feedback effect of past inf1ation upon itself so strong that dominated the effect of monetary/fiscal variables upon current inflation? This paper develops a simple model designed to capture several "stylized facts" of Brazi1ian indexing po1icy. Separate ru1es of "backward indexing" for interest rates, the exchange rate, and wages, reflecting the evolution of po1icy changes in Brazil, are incorporated in a two-sector model of industrial and agricultural prices. A transfer function derived irom this mode1 shows inflation depending on three factors: (1) past values of inflation, (2) monetary and fiscal variables, and (3) supply- .shock variables. The indexing rules for interest rates, the exchange rate, and wages place restrictions on the coefficients of the transfer function. Variations in the policy-determined parameters of the indexing rules imply changes in the coefficients of the transfer function for inflation. One implication of this model, in contrast to previous results derived in analytically simpler models of indexing, is that a higher degree of indexing does not make current inflation more responsive to current monetary shocks. The empirical section of this paper studies the central hypotheses of this model through estimation of the inflation transfer function with time-varying parameters. The results show a systematic non-random variation of the transfer function coefficients closely synchronized with changes in the observed values of the wage-indexing parameters. Non-parametric tests show the variation of the transfer function coefficients to be statistically significant at the time of the changes in wage indexing rules in Brazil. As the degree of indexing increased, the inflation feadback coefficients increased, while the effect of external price and agricultura shocs progressively increased and monetary effects progressively decreased.

Ensaios em opções reais e investimento sob incerteza

Esta tese é composta por três artigos, nos quais são apresentadas extensões e aplicações da Teoria das Opções Reais, todas de interesse para formuladores de política econômica no Brasil. O primeiro faz uma análise original da questão da bioprospecção, ou a exploração da diversidade biológica para fins econômicos. Duas estruturas alternativas para o desenho do mecanismo de concessão, visando o uso sustentável da biodiversidade brasileira, são sugeridas: (i) um modelo de projetos de P&D com maturidade incerta, no qual a intensidade do processo de Poisson que governa o tempo de maturação é explicitamente dependente do nível da biodiversidade no local concedido; (ii) um modelo de Agente-Principal, onde o Estado delega o exercício da opção de investimento à empresa de pesquisa biotecnológica. O segundo artigo avança a analogia entre opções de venda (“put options”) e cotas de importação. Os parâmetros relevantes para apreçar as licenças são agora obtidos endogenamente, a partir da interação entre a firma importadora e os produtores domésticos. Por fim, no terceiro, é feita análise pioneira do mercado paralelo de títulos precatórios no Brasil. Um modelo para a valoração de tais títulos é construído e proposto, tendo por base o arcabouço institucional existente sobre o assunto, tanto no governo central, como nos estados e municípios.

The brazilian education quality index (Ideb): measurement and incentives upgrades

The increasing availability of social statistics in Latin America opens new possibilities in terms of accountability and incentive mechanisms for policy makers. This paper addresses these issues within the institutional context of the Brazilian educational system. We build a theoretical model based on the theory of incentives to analyze the role of the recently launched Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) in the provision of incentives at the sub-national level. The first result is to demonstrate that an education target system has the potential to improve the allocation of resources to education through conditional transfers to municipalities and schools. Second, we analyze the local government’s decision about how to allocate its education budget when seeking to accomplish the different objectives contemplated by the index, which involves the interaction between its two components, average proficiency and the passing rate. We discuss as well policy issues concerning the implementation of the synthetic education index in the light of this model arguing that there is room for improving the Ideb’s methodology itself. In addition, we analyze the desirable properties of an ideal education index and we argue in favor of an ex-post relative learning evaluation system for different municipalities (schools) based on the value added across different grades

Relações de cooperação em consórcios públicos de regiões metropolitanas: análises do CONDIAM/PB e consórcio grande Recife

With the disorganized decentralization occurred in Brazil after the 1988 Constitution, municipalities have risen to the level of federal entities. This phenomenon became known as "municipalism" also brought some negative effects such as low capacity financial, economic and political of these entities. In the face of this reality , the municipalities sought in models of collaborative features to address public policy issues ultrarregionais, one of these models are the Public Consortia. Characterized as the organization of all federal entities that aim to solve public policy implementation alone that they could not, or spend great resources for such. This reality of the municipalities have an aggravating factor when looking at the situation in Metropolitan Regions (MRs). This is because the RMs has a historical process of formation that does not encourage cooperation, since that were created top-down during the military regime. Furthermore, the metropolitan municipalities have significant power asymmetries, localist vision, rigidity earmarked revenues, different scenarios conurbation, difficulty standardization of concepts and others that contribute to the vision of low cooperation of these metropolitan areas. Thus, the problem of this work is in the presence of collaborative arrangements, such as the Public Consortia in metropolitan areas, which are seen as areas of low cooperation. To elucidate this research was used for analysis the cases of CONDIAM/PB and Consórcio Grande Recife/PE, because they are apparently antagonistic, but with some points of similarity. The cases has as foundation the Theory of Common Resources, which provides the possibility of collective action through the initiative of individuals. This theory has as its methodology for analyzing the picture IAD Framework, which proposes its analysis based on three axes: external variables, the arena of action and results. The nature of the method of this research was classified as exploratory and descriptive. For the stage of date analysis, was used the method of document analysis and content, Further than of separation of the cases according to theur especificities. At the end of the study, noted that the CONDIAM/PB was a strategy of municipal government of Joao Pessoa to attract funds from the Federal Government for the purpose of to build a landfill, and over the years the ideology of cooperation was left aside, the prevailing view localist municipalities. In the case of Consórcio Grande Recife/PE, members act with some degree of cooperation, especially the collaborative aspect of the region, however, still prevails with greater strength the power of the state of Pernambuco in the decisions and paths of the consortium. Thus, was conclude that the Public Consortia analyzed are an experience of collaborative arrangement, from the initiative of members, as the theory of common resources says, but has not actually signed as a practice of collective action to overcome the dilemmas faced by metropolitan areas

Social Panorama of Latin America 2006

Includes bibliography

Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2013: tax reform and renewal of the fiscal covenant

Includes bibliography

Achieving educational quality: what schools teach us: learning from Chile's P900 primary schools

Includes bibliography

Municipal solid waste management in the Caribbean: a benefit-cost analysis

Includes bibliography

The international mobility of talent and its impact on global development: an overview

Includes bibliography

Status of Implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action in South America

Includes bibliography.

Da Europa para a América: a política externa brasileira, os antecessores do barão e os interesses da cafeicultura (1889-1912)

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS

Subsistemas, comunidades e redes para a análise da participação no processo de políticas públicas

In recent literature, the concept of policy subsystem has occupied a central place in many theoretical models, it is considered prime unit of analysis in recent approaches to the policy process. Subject of intense theoretical discussion, when compared to related concepts such as policy communities, policy networks and policy issues, these concepts can contribute to the analysis of political participation process, characteristic of democratic governments. This present study aims to present a critical review of the literature on subsystems, policy issues, policy networks and policy communities, as well as discuss these concepts emphasizing the participatory potential of the actors who make up these spaces, seeking to contribute to the dialogue of studies in public policy and participation policy in Brazil.

Apontamentos sobre a construção sócio-histórica de estigmas e estereótipos em relação ao homoerotismo entre mulheres

This article aims at to count the history about the homoerotism among women in the western societies and in the modernity seeking to notice what bases stigmata and stereotypes on lesbianity at the present time. For that, it was collected in scientific works about feminine sexuality and homosexuality information regarding the lesbianity theme – scarce and of difficult access. The macho system and the phallocentrism put a mantle on that history, making it invizibilizated and ilegitimated. Removing the lesbianity from the obscurantism could contribute to the reflection on public policy issues that pertain to lesbian women and with homoerotic relationships and practices and contribute for the production of life quality for people that are moved by binary perspectives of stigmata and stereotypes. That research was financed by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP, and accomplished by the PósGraduation Program of the Universidade Estadual Paulista – Campus of Assis SP.

The Economics of Residential Solid Waste Management

This paper provides a broad overview of recent trends in solid waste and recycling, related public policy issues, and the economics literature devoted to these topics. Public attention to solid waste and recycling has increased dramatically over the past decade both in the United States and in Europe. In response, economists have developed models to help policy makers choose the efficient mix of policy levers to regulate solid waste and recycling activities. Economists have also employed different kinds of data to estimate the factors that contribute to the generation of residential solid waste and recycling and to estimate the effectiveness of many of the policy options employed.