Most Cited Articles Published in Brazilian Journals of Economics: Google Scholar Rankings

This paper examines the rankings of the most cited papers published in Brazilian journals of economics since 1990, according to Google Scholar [GS]. Quality research published in Brazil, as measured by academic impact, is mainly done by authors affiliated with international institutions. Half of the articles are co-authored, 7% are authored by graduate students, and women appear to be underrepresented. There is little overlap between authors publishing in domestic journals and authors publishing in international journals. The areas of research more frequently cited by GS and domestic journals are macroeconomics, labor economics, and industrial organization. The most cited articles in international journals are of econometrics, game theory, and development economics. Revista de Economia Política is the top Brazilian journal for the general public, and Revista de Econometria is the top Brazilian journal for academia. GS citations are not a good indicator of journal citationsRankings of Articles, Economists and Departments, Role of Economists.

The Tenure Game: Building Up Academic Habits

Why do some academics continue to be productive after receiving tenure? This paper answers this question by using a Stackelberg differential game between departments and scholars. We show that departments can set tenure rules and standards as incentives for scholars to accumulate academic habits. As a result, academic habits have a lasting positive impact in scholar’s productivity, leading to higher scholar’s productivity rate of growth and higher productivity level.Role of economists; sociology of economics.

Conflict, Political Structure and Economic Growth in Dual-Population Lands

The optimal consumption growth rate for a group in a strictly political federation in a dual-population land is lower than that under partition if the group is wealthier and has a lower population growth rate than its counterpart. Even in such circumstances the group may economically benefit from joining a federation that facilitates technological transfer as long as the group’s initial technology is inferior to the hybrid. The group’s optimal consumption growth rate during a civil war is larger than those under partition and a strictly political federation if its rival’s warfare is mainly aimed at inflicting casualties.conflict, political structure, economic growth

Depression and Substance Abuse: A Rationalization of a Vicious Circle

While a mind-altering-substance consumption alleviates current level of depression, it facilitates future depression. Our analysis incorporates this trade off and shows that the stationary state of a consistently overly ambitious sophisticated substance user is improved by impatience, and that this improvement is amplified by the ratio of the instantaneous depression-relief effect to the state-degradation effect of the substance. The analysis also shows that the existence of a supportive personal community leads to permanent cyclical substance consumption when the user is relatively patient.Substance abuse, ambition, consistency, sophistication, impatience, state-maturation, state-degradation, depression, relief, community support, cycles

Persistence in Airline Accidents

This paper analyses airline accident data from 1927-2006, through fractional integration. It is shown that airline accidents are persistent and (fractionally) cointegrated with airline traffic. There exists a negative relation between air accidents and airline traffic, with the effect of the shocks to that relationship disappearing in the long run. Policy implications are derived for countering accident events.Accidents; airline; Time series; Persistence; Long memory; Cointegration.

Brazilian Land Tenure and Conflicts: The Landless Peasants' Movement

This paper analyzes conflicts and violence in Brazil involving landless peasants occupying privately-owned land, for the period 2000-2008. It is the first study to be undertaken at a national level, with a contemporary data span, using a count data model that allows for heterogeneity, endogeneity and dynamics. Results from the estimated model show that the violent land occupation grows with left-wing political support for land occupation, rural population density, and agricultural credit, and decreases with poverty, agricultural productivity. The study discusses the interconnection of land reform, poverty and conflict.Land occupation, land reform, Brazil, poverty, conflict.

Opportunism vs. Excellence in Academia: Quality Accreditation of Collegiate Business Schools

This study extends the literature on the (in)effectiveness of quality accreditation by examining how standards adopted by an accrediting or research agency, such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), can be manipulated by academic units, such as collegiate schools of business. We present a hierarchical differential game between a collegiate business school and its accrediting agency to advance the hypothesis that strategic or opportunistic behavior occurs where heterogeneity in academic achievement exists, as represented by an uneven distribution of academic achievement resulting either from the presence of both unproductive and highly productive faculty or periods of high academic productivity followed by other periods of low academic productivity. Statistical explorations utilizing data from senior management faculty affiliated with both the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking colleges and universities in the U.S. are suggestive of the presence of incentives facing some U.S. business schools to behave strategically or opportunistically in terms of quality accreditation