Essays on industrial organization

This thesis is composed by three essays and provides empirical and methodological contributions to the Industrial Organization literature. The first essay (chapter 2) analyzes the welfare impacts of the Brazilian Biodiesel law. The second essay (chapter 3) develops an alternative estimator for dynamic games. The third essay (chapter 4) applies the methodology developed in chapter 3 to build a dynamic oligopoly model for Brazilian banking industry. Chapter 5 concludes the thesis and provides some directions for future work. Chapter 1 analyzes market effects of Brazilian biodiesel regulations. Biodiesel was introduced in Brazil in 2005, mixed with mineral diesel to produce the BX blend (X stands for the percentage of biodiesel). Even in small quantities, the percentage of biodiesel has a positive impact on final price of BX because the production costs of biodiesel are higher than those of mineral diesel. In order to analyze the welfare consequences of this price increase, I use a static partial equilibrium framework. The results show that the current proportion of biodiesel in the diesel mixture (5%) increases consumers' price by 1.7% and decreases the consumption by 1.5% compared to the scenario without biodiesel. Also, an increase in the biodiesel percentage to 10% would raise the price by 3.5% and reduce the consumption by 3%. Chapter 3 provides an alternative estimator for dynamic games. Estimation of dynamic games is a numerically challenging task, in chapter 3 we propose an alternative class of asymptotic least squares estimators to Pesendorfer and Schmidt-Dengler's (2008). The estimator we propose is based on the equilibrium condition of the game when represented in the space of payoffs - in contrast with Pesendorfer and Schmidt-Dengler's (2008) that work in the probability space. Our estimator reduces significantly the computational burden. This reduction is specially significant under the linear-in-parameter specification where our estimator has an OLS/GLS closed form that does not require any optimization. Also, we show that our estimator is asymptotically equivalent to Pesenrorfer and Schmidt-Dengler's (2008). This implies that there is no theoretical cost of using our estimator. Monte Carlo estimations show that our estimator has good small sample properties and provides significant reduction in the computational time when compared to Pesenrorfer and Schmidt-Dengler's (2008) estimator. Chapter 4 applies the methodology developed in chapter 3. We estimate a dynamic oligopoly model for the Brazilian banking industry. The results are used to build counterfactuals to examine the effects of the privatization of public banks on the number of bank branches in small municipalities. We find that public banks are not strategic and their presence generate positive spillovers on the private banks' profits. The model however, is not able to disentangle the nature of this spillover. Also, the counterfactual shows that the number of branches operating in small markets would drop in a privatization scenario. Chapter 5 is the conclusion, I discuss the limitations of the current work and provide some directions for future research

O QUE DETERMINA A POLÍTICA SALARIAL DE UMA PLANTA NO BRASIL?

In this paper we examine the wage of all workers of single plant in the State of São Paulo over the time, using the data of RAIS (Annual Records of Social Information). The objective is to test different theories of wages inside a firm. The results show that the workers have a certain degree of protection against changes in external market conditions, that wage policy of the plant is strongly guided by observable employees' characteristics and that the wage increases inside the plant have a small and negative serial correlation. Above of all, we find that none of the three main theories of wage determination alone can explain the results.

Joint Analysis of the Discount Factor and Payoff Parameters in Dynamic Discrete Choice Models

Most empirical and theoretical econometric studies of dynamic discrete choice models assume the discount factor to be known. We show the knowledge of the discount factor is not necessary to identify parts, or even all, of the payoff function. We show the discount factor can be generically identified jointly with the payoff parameters. On the other hand it is known the payo¤ function cannot be nonparametrically identified without any a priori restrictions. Our identification of the discount factor is robust to any normalization choice on the payoff parameters. In IO applications normalizations are usually made on switching costs, such as entry costs and scrap values. We also show that switching costs can be nonparametrically identified, in closed-form, independently of the discount factor and other parts of the payoff function. Our identification strategies are constructive. They lead to easy to compute estimands that are global solutions. We illustrate with a Monte Carlo study and the dataset used in Ryan (2012)

O olhar sobre a capoeira : um estudo dos filmes nacionais e internacionais

Este estudo busca compreender as representações da capoeira, feitas circularem pelas produções cinematográficas brasileiras e estrangeiras, e seu processo de desenvolvimento relacionado com a ideia de cultura brasileira. Tendo como fonte de análise 50 filmes de ficção, 20 produzidos no Brasil e 30 no exterior, onde a capoeira aparece de forma direta ou indiretamente, procuramos identificar nas imagens os elementos e mecanismos utilizados para apresentar a capoeira e a relação das apropriações destes elementos entre as produções nacionais e internacionais. Entendendo as características que compõem os elementos visuais, sonoros e textuais, como indícios que se apresentam de forma visível ou não visível nas películas, e que podem ser reveladores dos processos de apropriações e das lutas de representações sobre o entendimento da capoeira a serem projetadas para os espectadores, realizamos dentro deste processo metodológico, uma leitura minuciosa, detetivesca, ligando pontos e interrogando-os para a construção da narrativa por meio das evidências. A pesquisa aponta, até o momento, que da década de 1950 a 2012 a capoeira passa por transformações e ressignificações no cinema, onde é usada no processo de afirmação da cultura e identidade do povo brasileiro, seja pela ideia de esportivização ou pela busca das manifestações na história do Brasil. Desse modo, a capoeira é marcada por descontinuidades no seu processo de desenvolvimento como prática cultural, assumindo várias formas e se afastando do discurso tradicional, no qual há uma continuidade pautada em moldes de uma originalidade, expressadas no momento de captura das imagens em movimento e feitas circular no imaginário brasileiro e estrangeiro.This study focuses on representations of capoeira move made by Brazilian and foreign film productions and its development process related to the idea of Brazilian culture. Having a source analysis feature films produced in Brazil and abroad, where capoeira appears directly or indirectly, seek to identify the images elements and mechanisms used to present the roost and the relationship of these elements appropriations between national productions and international. Understanding the characteristics that make up the visuals, audio and textual evidence to present themselves as a visible or not visible in films, and may reveal the processes of appropriation and struggles of representations on the understanding of poultry to be designed to viewers, conducted within this methodological process, perusal, detective, connecting points and interrogating them with other sources. The research points to date, that the decade 1950-2012 capoeira undergoes transformations and resignifications film, where it is used in the process of affirmation of the culture and identity of the Brazilian people, is the idea of sportivization or the redemption of demonstrations the origin of Brazil. Thus, capoeira is marked by discontinuities in the development process as a cultural practice, assuming various shapes and moving away from the traditional discourse, in which there is a continuity guided by molds originality, expressed at the time of capture of moving images and made circular in Brazilian and abroad imagination.FAPE

Avaliação da carga poluente do efluente dos Departamentos de Química Analítica e Bioquímica do Instituto de Química – UFRJ

Este trabalho avaliou a carga poluente do efluente dos departamentos de Química Analítica e Bioquímica do Instituto de Química da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ. Foram analisados parâmetros como pH, condutividade, temperatura, e teores de metais pesados. Averiguou-se que os laboratórios do quinto andar do Instituto de Química da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, não possuem uma estação de tratamento de esgoto específica. Os resíduos líquidos gerados nos laboratórios, e descartados na pia, são lançados dentro de tanques de acúmulo. Dessa maneira, uma vez que o sistema atual de esgoto da Universidade não recebe qualquer tratamento, esses resíduos após passar por um tanque de coleta, se misturam com a rede pública de esgoto da CEDAE. Por outro lado, o Instituto de Química realiza um bom trabalho em relação ao descarte de resíduos, visto que em todos os laboratórios há galões de descarte para diferentes metais e compostos ácidos-bases o que facilita no momento de realizar o tratamento. É importante ressaltar que o Departamento de Química Analítica realiza um pré-tratamento de precipitação de metais, neutralização dos compostos ácidos-bases e recuperação do metal prata. Em seguida esses rejeitos de metais precipitados são filtrados e a parte sólida é recolhida por uma empresa contratada, que fica responsável pelo destino final dos resíduos. Já os laboratórios do Departamento de Bioquímica, não realizam o pré-tratamento dos rejeitos gerados. Apenas depositam os rejeitos, na maioria cromo e cobre, em galões diferentes e após o seu descarte uma empresa contratada realiza a coleta dos mesmos e também fica responsável pelo seu destino final. Com base em todos os dados analisados, é de suma importância manter a conscientização de alunos, técnicos e docentes sobre o uso correto dos laboratórios no Instituo de Química, sendo o mesmo imprescindível para que possa ser reduzida a contaminação por efluentes, principalmente daqueles que são despejados de maneira indevida, diminuindo assim o impacto ambiental e o risco gerado à saúde pública. A partir dos resultados analisados, verificou-se que os metais não tratados, que são descartados nas Redes de Esgoto providas de Estação de Tratamento (CEDAE), estão em concentrações abaixo das máximas permitidas, segundo os critérios gerais de lançamentos através de redes coletoras dotadas de tratamento adequado de acordo com o FEEMA – NT202

Datasets for Portuguese Legal Semantic Textual Similarity: Comparing weak supervision and an annotation process approaches

The Brazilian judiciary has a large workload, resulting in a long time to finish legal proceedings. Brazilian National Council of Justice has established in Resolution 469/2022 formal guidance for document and process digitalization opening up the possibility of using automatic techniques to help with everyday tasks in the legal field, particularly in a large number of texts yielded on the routine of law procedures. Notably, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques allow for processing and extracting useful information from textual data, potentially speeding up the process. However, datasets from the legal domain required by several AI techniques are scarce and difficult to obtain as they need labels from experts. To address this challenge, this article contributes with four datasets from the legal domain, two with documents and metadata but unlabeled, and another two labeled with a heuristic aiming at its use in textual semantic similarity tasks. Also, to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic label process, this article presents a small ground truth dataset generated from domain expert annotations. The analysis of ground truth labels highlights that semantic analysis of domain text can be challenging even for domain experts. Also, the comparison between ground truth and heuristic labels shows that heuristic labels are useful

Initial development of Physalis seedlings in substrates and containers

The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth of Physalis peruviana and Physalis pubescens in containers and substrates, as well as the growth of transplanted P. pubescens seedlings into different containers and substrates. It was used for transplanting experiment (E1) plastic bags, disposable plastic glasses and plastic tubes containing four substrates: oxisol; commercial substrate; commercial substrate + fine washed sand; and commercial substrate + oxisol + fine washed sand. For the experiment of containers x substrates (E2) it was used polystyrene and polypropylene trays, both with 200 cells containing two substrates: vermiculite + commercial substrate and vermiculite + oxisol. For the experiment of containers x substrates (E3), it was used polystyrene trays with 128 and 200 cells and plastic tubes containing four substrates: commercial substrate, oxisol, fine washed sand, oxisol + fine washed sand and oxisol + fine washed sand + commercial substrate. The experimental design used in E1, E2 and E3 was randomized blocks in factorial 3x4, 2x2, and 3x5, respectively, containing 4 replicates and 10 plants per plot. The use of commercial substrate Húmus Fértil® for P. pubescens seedlings transplanted from seedbed to containers such as plastic glasses or plastic bags provides better seedling growth. For Physalis peruviana, better results are verified in the use of polypropylene tubes containing washed fine sand + commercial substrate Húmus Fértil® + oxisol or washed fine sand + oxisol. Better results for formation of P. pubescens seedlings were verified by using expanded polystyrene trays containing oxisol + vermiculite mixture.The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth of Physalis peruviana and Physalis pubescens in containers and substrates, as well as the growth of transplanted P. pubescens seedlings into different containers and substrates. It was used for transplanting experiment (E1) plastic bags, disposable plastic glasses and plastic tubes containing four substrates: oxisol; commercial substrate; commercial substrate + fine washed sand; and commercial substrate + oxisol + fine washed sand. For the experiment of containers x substrates (E2) it was used polystyrene and polypropylene trays, both with 200 cells containing two substrates: vermiculite + commercial substrate and vermiculite + oxisol. For the experiment of containers x substrates (E3), it was used polystyrene trays with 128 and 200 cells and plastic tubes containing four substrates: commercial substrate, oxisol, fine washed sand, oxisol + fine washed sand and oxisol + fine washed sand + commercial substrate. The experimental design used in E1, E2 and E3 was randomized blocks in factorial 3x4, 2x2, and 3x5, respectively, containing 4 replicates and 10 plants per plot. The use of commercial substrate Húmus Fértil® for P. pubescens seedlings transplanted from seedbed to containers such as plastic glasses or plastic bags provides better seedling growth. For Physalis peruviana, better results are verified in the use of polypropylene tubes containing washed fine sand + commercial substrate Húmus Fértil® + oxisol or washed fine sand + oxisol. Better results for formation of P. pubescens seedlings were verified by using expanded polystyrene trays containing oxisol + vermiculite mixture

JANEIRO PLANEJAMENTO E RESPOSTA: ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA ENTRE O PLANO DE CONTINGÊNCIA E OS IMPACTOS DAS TEMPESTADES DE DE 2024 NO MUNICÍPIO DE GUARATUBA/PR

O município de Guaratuba foi um dos locais afetados no desastre ocorrido no litoral Paraná em 2011, conhecido como “águas de março”, com prejuízos generalizados e ampla afetação de serviços essenciais, moradias e pessoas. À época o sistema de controle utilizado contava apenas com ferramenta de registro e acompanhamento das ocorrências de desastres. Posteriormente, foi incluída ferramenta de confecção de Plano de Contingência. Em janeiro de 2024, o município de Guaratuba foi novamente atingido por fortes chuvas, causando um desastre de grande extensão. Neste evento, o município já possuía o Plano de Contingência gerado pela ferramenta disponibilizada. Com o objetivo de avaliar se o planejamento para resposta a desastres no município é eficaz, foi realizado um estudo comparativo entre as informações sobre áreas afetáveis e estrutura de atendimento presentes no Plano de Contingência e as informações de áreas atingidas e estruturas, como abrigos, utilizadas no atendimento ao desastre em 2024. Como conclusão, percebemos que o planejamento de contingência é uma ferramenta útil na atuação, no entanto este deve possuir o zelo de incluir todas as áreas que podem ser afetadas e suas estruturas sensíveis, de maneira a permitir ações de proteção