Assets, Markets and Poverty in Brazil

This paper establishes a basis of research on the relationships among poverty, resources distribution and assets markets operation. The main objective is to help the implementation of capital enhancing policies towards the poor. The strategy followed is to analyze three different types of impact that increasing the assets of the poor may have on social welfare. The first part of the paper evaluates the possession of different types of capital along the income distribution. This exercise can be perceived as an augmentation of income based poverty measures by incorporating the direct effect exerted by asset holdings on social welfare. The second part of the paper describes the income generating impact that asset holdings may have on poverty. It studies how the accumulation of different types of capital impact income-based poverty outcomes using logistic regressions. The third part studies the effect that increasing asset holdings of the poor has on improving poor individuals` ability to deal with adverse income shocks. This consists ofstudying the interactionsamong earnings dynamics, capital market imperfections and financial behavior, taking into account different time horizons. Long-run issues are related to the study of low frequency income fluctuations and life-cycle assets holdings using cohort analysis. Short-run issues are related to assessing the poor behavior and welfare losses in dealing with high frequency gaps between income and desired consumption. The analysis of earnings and poverty dynamics is conducted with panel data while qualitative data is used for the analysis of short-run household financial behavior.

O Final Cut de Hume Contra o Argumento do Desígnio - Hume’s Final Cut Against the Argument of Design

Com base na crítica que Hume faz ao argumento do desígnio, especialmente nas partes 10 e 11 dos Diálogos sobre a Religião Natural, meu objetivo neste artigo é, a partir de uma análise da relação entre a existência do mal no mundo e a suposta existência de uma divindade possuidora dos atributos tradicionais do teísmo, defender a tese segundo a qual o tratamento que Hume dá ao problema do mal corresponde, digamos assim, à cartada final – o último e decisivo recurso que Philo personagem que articula essa crítica) aciona para mostrar que o argumento do desígnio não fornece bases suficientemente sólidas e consistentes para dar suporte à crença na existência de um Deus maximamente poderoso, justo e benevolente; e que, portanto, a existência do mal no mundo tem uma força argumentativa tal que a improbabilidade da existência de Deus é maior do que com base nos argumentos apresentados nas partes 2 a 8 dos Diálogos. Isso significa que eu tomo aqui o problema do mal como o maior problema para o teísta experimental – cuja argumentação pretende provar a existência de Deus a partir da observação dos fenômenos do mundo

Microeconomic instability and social welfare in Brazil

This work evaluates the social effects of economic instability using a rotating panels. It is divided in three parts: the first note qualifies the assessment of inequality in a context of changing income volatility measured at an individual level. The practical lesson extracted from this exercise is that most of the fall of inequality observed after the 1994 Brazilian stabilization corresponds to a type of measurement error. The second note assesses the intensity of movements into and out of poverty and the extent of income and occupational mobility during a series of booms and recessions. This episodic analysis attempts to unveil macro-micro linkages. It will allows us to identify the main winners and losers of different macroeconomic environments according to permanent earnings, school attainment, sector of activity, working class and regional location. The third note attempts to measure the long-run consequences of idiosyncratic shocks. In particular, we estimate the impacts of changes in occupational and income circumstances of adults on changes in child education related decisions (i.e., school drop-out and grade repetition).Departamento de Economí

Conception and development of a system used to organize and facilitate access to environmental information

In São Paulo State's ) coastal area, Brazil, for several years, a chemical company discharged, without any sort of environmental control, a blend of industrial waste composed of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Lawsuits forced the company to identify and limit such deposits in order to perform the environmental recovery. A recovery project was developed demanding preparation and handling of a large amount of documents, satellite images, aerial photographs, maps and videos with the increase of the information and knowledge management issues. This condition became even more critical as the projects started to become cross-disciplinary, involving a growing number of experts, many of them established in different cities. These circumstances led to develop an Environmental Information System (BASGEO) enabling the organization and facilitation of access to such documents while increasing information safety. This work shows the development of this system and the difficulties related to the management and handling of environmental documents. The research method used was the direct observation of the system development and the semi-structured interview conducted with executives and administrative employees of the company. The results show several gains provided by the BASGEO, improving and accelerating access to information, significantly reducing the need for displacements to transport documents, thus reflecting increased safety

Analysis of the formulation process of the Mais Médicos Program

This paper analyzes the formulation process of the Mais Médicos Program (PMM), to answer the following questions: (1) Why was the PMM formulated with its specific format and (2) Which actors, ideas and institutions influenced its formulation process. To do so, it examines the solutions proposed by the public debate to the medical supply and training insufficiencies, from the 1960s until the PMM creation. Based on process tracing, the study analyzed bibliographic, documentary and interview data. Studies on political process and the Theory of Gradual Institutional Change formed its theoretical background. Results showed that the Program design was significantly modified by the Government from its proposal until its approval. The favorable scenario, characterized by popular and political approval of the Program, together with the strategic action of its formulators, allowed to expand its scope, approaching the principles defended by the Policy Community of the Health Movement. Finally, its format was influenced by previously implemented policies and ideas defended by its main formulators.O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o processo de formulação do Programa Mais Médicos (PMM). O estudo procurou responder: (1) Por que o PMM foi formulado com seu formato específico e (2) Quais atores, ideias e instituições influenciaram seu processo de formulação? Para isso, foram analisadas as soluções presentes no debate público para as insuficiências na oferta e formação de médicos, desde os anos 1960 até a criação do PMM. O método adotado foi de process tracing, com uso de análises bibliográfica, documental e de entrevistas. Foram utilizados, principalmente, os recursos teóricos oferecidos pelos estudos sobre processo político e a Teoria da Mudança Institucional Gradual. Dentre os principais resultados, destacam-se os seguintes: o desenho do programa foi modificado significativamente desde sua proposição pelo Poder Executivo até sua aprovação como lei; a conjuntura favorável, caracterizada pela aprovação popular e política do programa, junto à ação estratégica de seus formuladores, permitiu a ampliação de escopo, aproximando o PMM dos princípios defendidos pela Comunidade de Políticas Movimento Sanitário; o seu formato foi influenciado por políticas implementadas em períodos anteriores e por ideias defendidas anteriormente pelos seus principais formuladores

Basic school teachers’ perceptions about curriculum theories

Este artigo relata uma pesquisa sobre percepções de currículo de um grupo de 65 educadores atuando em escola pública. A importância de compreender a visão dos educadores sobre esse tema é associada à necessidade de desenvolvimento de estratégias para formação e diálogo que, baseadas no pensamento dos atores da educação, sejam úteis para as discussões que envolvem mudanças curriculares. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de campo realizada por meio de um questionário de opinião sobre afirmativas relacionadas ao conceito de currículo. Os resultados demonstram que as teorias pós-críticas têm mais aceitação e que as teorias críticas foram as mais rejeitadas, embora tenham, sob alguns aspectos, grande aceitação. As teorias tradicionais tiveram o maior número de opiniões classificadas como incerteza ou indiferença, mas são reconhecidas como o elemento organizador das práticas em sala de aula. Não houve no grupo um educador que manifestasse concordância exclusiva com apenas uma das teorias. Verificou-se que as três concepções de currículo balizam as opiniões do grupo investigado. A presença simultânea de ideias que refletem concepções de currículo tão diferentes é interpretada como reflexo de um período de transformação ideológica na área educacional. Refletir e aprender sobre as teorias curriculares pode ajudar o educador a ter maior clareza sobre as concepções de currículo que orientam sua prática pedagógica e favorecer a participação crítica nas reformas educacionais.This article reports an investigation on curriculum perceptions of a group of 65 educators working in a public school. The importance to understand the view of the educators on this topic is associated with the need to develop strategies for training and dialogue, which, based on the thought of the education actors, are useful to the discussions that involve curriculum changes. It is a field research conducted with an opinion questionnaire about statements related to the concept of curriculum. Results showed that the post-critical theories are more accepted and that critical theories were more rejected, although they were largely accepted under certain aspects. Traditional theories had the highest number of opinions classified as uncertainty or indifference, but are recognized as the organizing element of classroom practices. In the group, no educator revealed an exclusive agreement with the ideas of only one of the theories. It was found that the three curriculum conceptions guide the opinions of the investigated group. The simultaneous presence of ideas that reflect such different curriculum conceptions is interpreted as reflecting a period of ideological transformation in the educational field. Pondering and learning about curricular theories may help the educator to clarify the conceptions of curriculum that guide their pedagogical practice and to favor the critical participation in educational reforms

ASPECTOS DINÂMICOS DE UM SISTEMA DE METAS SOCIAIS

The present paper develops variants of a system of social targets departing from principal-agent models incorporating different possibilities of renegotiation across time periods, as well as the presence of shocks. This system acts as a way for the federal government to increase efficiency in the use of its social budget transferred to municipalities.We demonstrate in a dynamic context with complete contracts that the best way to increase allocative efficiency in funds transfers would be to create institutional mechanisms denying the possibility of bilateral renegotiations. This optimum contract reproduces sequence targets and transfers found in the solution of the static model for various periods. However, this result disappears when we incorporate incomplete contracts. In this case, ex-ante inefficiencies created by the possibility of renegotiation must be weighted against ex-post inefficiencies created by not using the disclosed new information along of process.In the second part of the paper we incorporate the incidence of random shocks. We show that, when the social results do not depend only on the investments carried through by the municipality, but also random factors, the contract established between federal government and municipalities, must stipulate higher social targets to compensate the occurrence of bad states of the nature. Moreover, in this kind of situation, linear contracts are pro-cyclical, reducing governmental transfers exactly when the municipality suffers a negative shock. To avoid this type of situation, we show that the establishment of contracts that use mechanisms of comparison of performance between the municipalities eliminates the pro-cyclical effect.