Trade Liberalization, Inequality and Poverty in Brazilian States.

This paper studies the impact of trade liberalization and international trade on household income inequality and poverty using detailed micro-data across Brazilian states, from 1987 to 2005. Results suggest that Brazilian states that were more exposed to tariff cuts experienced smaller reductions in household poverty and inequality. If significance of results on Brazilian states depends on the choice of poverty and inequality indicators, robust and contrasting results emerge when we disaggregate into rural and urban areas within states. Trade liberalization contributes to poverty and inequality increases in urban areas and may be linked to inequality declines in rural areas (no significant effect on rural poverty appears from our study). In terms of observed integration to world markets, import penetration plays a similar role as trade liberalization for Brazilian states as a whole. On the contrary, rising export exposure appears to have significantly reduced both measures of household welfare.Poverty; Trade liberalization; Brazil states; Inequality;

Coronacrises in Brazil

The first Covid-19 infection case was registered in Brazil during the Carnival causing a new sanitary problem and deepening other economic, political and moral problems already existing in our society. The size and the diversity of Brazil require a central coordination to organize the sub-national efforts and to manage the distribution of the scarce medical resources among different regions. The central government response, besides denying the importance and the extent of the Pandemic, was rather insufficient: the federal government often boycotted sub-national governments’ initiatives by discrediting local governments and by adopting contradictory policies. Consequently, there wasn’t a unified strategy that would have benefited all regions of the country both in sanitary and economic terms

Acordo de Livre Comércio com a UE: a vulnerabilidade dos produtos industriais produzidos pelo Mercosul à competição européia [Free Trade Agreement - EU and Mercosur: vulnerability of Mercosur products to European competition]

The UE and Mercosur are currently negotiating a free trade agreement. The offer made by Mercosur reflects its production and protection structure and is more "generous" to agriculture than to industry. In fact, the main competitive fragilities of Mercosur are concentrated in manufactured goods while European competitive fragilities are concentrated in the agriculture sector. As the UE has an important market share in the Mercosur countries, it poses a major threat to the domestic producers. Our paper seeks to identify, at a disaggregated level, the Mercosur manufactured goods for which the growth of the European manufacture exports can represent a threat. We consider that trade growth depends on the existence of complementarity between the two regions and the existence of a margin for liberalization in the destination market, and that the greater the trade among Mercosur countries the greater the threat from European goods to local produces.free trade agreement, manufactured goods, Mercosur, European Union

INTEGRAÇÃO REGIONAL E INTERNACIONAL DO MERCOSUL: UMA MEDIDA DE INTEGRAÇÃO E DE ACESSO A MERCADOS A PARTIR DA ESTIMAÇÃO DO EFEITO-FRONTEIRA

The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the degree of integration of Mercosur both at a regional and a multilateral level. We estimate a gravity equation in order to assess the border effect and the degree of integration among Mercosur countries during the 90's.

The crew timetabling problem: an extension of the crew scheduling problem

In some urban transportation companies driving periods are short when compared with the total duty time, leading to long non-driving periods that can be used as cover time. This paper presents the Crew Timetabling Problem, an extension of the Crew Scheduling Problem in which crew timetables are obtained by levelling the cover crew resources. An objective function for this problem is proposed in order to balance the number of driving and cover crews. A Lisbon Underground case study is used to illustrate The Crew Timetabling Problem. The problem is represented in a multigraph and solved by a tabu search-based heuristic

EXTERNAL TRADE EFFECTS ON WOMAN EMPLOYMENT: THE CASE OF BRAZIL

A teoria tradicional de comércio reconhece que o comércio internacional traz conseqüências diferenciadas para os diversos grupos sociais. Uma crescente literatura vem chamando a atenção para os efeitos destes fenômenos em termos de gênero, devido às mudanças de preços ou de volume das mercadorias ou do emprego. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar, do ponto de vista de gênero, mudanças recentes no comércio exterior brasileiro, focalizando os efeitos sobre o emprego feminino. Para tal, calcula-se o conteúdo de emprego feminino e masculino do comércio exterior brasileiro, total e segundo parceiros comerciais e levando-se em conta não somente o emprego direto mas também o indiretamente associado ao comércio. É considerado também o grau de qualificação da mão-de-obra, cuja proxy utilizada é o número de anos de estudo, uma vez que o comércio pode gerar impactos distributivos diferenciados. A análise leva em conta a evolução recente mas também simula os impactos no caso da realização de acordos comerciais com parceiros selecionados. Os resultados refletem a especialização comercial brasileira e a intensidade de mão-de-obra dos setores. Em termos de mão-de-obra total, o Brasil aparece como um exportador líquido de mão-de-obra, sobretudo de baixa qualificação. Os resultados para o emprego feminino são similares em alguns pontos: o saldo em termos de emprego é positivo e cresceu entre 1995 e 2005. Porém, a presença feminina no emprego associado ao comércio é menos importante do que a presença masculina, sendo o “saldo” de empregos femininos associado ao comércio exterior de apenas 3,5% do número total de mulheres ocupadas (diante de 6% para a mão-de-obra total). Outra diferença importante é que, acompanhando uma característica do mercado de trabalho em geral, o emprego feminino associado ao comércio é relativamente mais qualificado que o masculino. O artigo conclui indicando o que poderia acontecer com o emprego em função de uma intensificação do comércio com determinado(s) parceiro(s).The traditional trade theory recognizes that the consequences of international trade differ according to social groups. An increasing literature emphasizes the effect of these phenomena in terms of gender. This, because of the impact of trade changes in terms of prices and quantities of goods but also of labor. The objective of this work is to analyze the effects of recent changes in the Brazilian external trade from a gender point of view, focusing on its impact on the feminine labor force. With this purpose, I calculate the feminine and masculine labor content of Brazilian trade. It takes into account not only the direct but also the indirect labor content and it also distinguishes labor force by qualification, which proxy is the years of schooling. The effects are estimated both for total and geographical disaggregated trade flows, in order to reveal differences among trade with different partners and also to demonstrate that trade agreements have different gender impacts. The results reflect the Brazilian trade specialization and the labor force intensity of the sectors. In terms of total labor force, Brazil appears as a net labor exporter, mainly of low qualification. The results for the feminine labor force are similar in some points: the balance in terms of jobs is positive and grew between 1995 and 2005. However, the number of feminine jobs associated to trade represents only 3.5% of the total female employment, which is less important than for men. Another important difference is that, following a characteristic of the work market in general, feminine jobs related to trade is relatively more qualified than the masculine ones

Projeto vídeo nas aldeias: o uso do documentário nas relações inter-étnicas: a apropriação da imagem na construção da identidade

Exercício exploratório do projeto "Vídeo nas Aldeias", que desde 1987, promove o encontro do índio com a sua imagem. O projeto tem como objetivo fomentar e mediar o domínio técnico, artístico e crítico do vídeo como linguagem e tecnologia. Índios de 23 povos diferentes já participaram de oficinas para aprender a registrar e editar suas imagens, formando uma geração de realizadores indígenas que vêm fazendo uma espécie de “auto-etnografia”, bem como um intercâmbio de imagens e informações. A partir de alguns exemplos selecionados dentre as produções do projeto, meu estudo analisa como a descoberta da própria imagem e da imagem do outro, através do acesso ao vídeo e às técnicas de filmagem, promove processos reflexivos que levam esses índios a se apropriarem desse suporte narrativo para ressignificar sua imagem, firmar alianças e construir sua identidade. O estudo focaliza também como esse instrumento de observação, intervenção e comunicação cria uma arena onde, diante do contato com os “brancos”, esses índios podem lutar para adquirir visibilidade e para afirmar sua legitimidade no âmbito cultural, político e moral

FDI, Trade and Integration in Mercosur

In the 90’s, the Mercosur countries experienced a strong growth of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). To examine the relationship between FDI, trade and regional integration in the Mercosur, we tested different disaggregated gravity equations on trade and FDI flows between two Mercosur members – Argentina and Brazil – and their partners during the 90’s. Our results attest a strong relationship between FDI and imports, but a weak and negative linkage between FDI and exports. This reinforces the perception that the investment flows into the Mercosur countries has generated strong flows of imports without generating exports. Another important result is the relevance of Mercosur in multinational firms strategies that seems to be different depending on the country where the firm is located. Firms installed in Brazil give an importance to the regional market while the firms installed in Argentina, assume that regional market is not a relevant issue