Transaction costs arising from breaches of legal contracts - The case of judicial breaches of contracts of anticipated sale contracts of soybeans in Brazil.

Anticipated sales of commodities reached a significant importance in modern economics. They represent the main mechanism of economic exchange and of guarantee of fulfilment of mutual obligation commitments. In Brazil, the anticipated sale of commodities is one of the main funding mechanisms of agribusiness, particularly for commodities like soybeans and corn. In this scheme, part of the production is bought and paid by the buyer during planting of the crops. Contracts are instruments designed to ensure greater legal certainty to economic transactions. Efficient economies are governed by rules of public and private character, but private arrangements have special focus on these scenarios, and its efficiency is directly proportional to the degree of reliability in fulfiling obligations. Brazil?s agribusiness is one of the economic sectors most susceptible to the effects of judicial decisions, because it is also highly regulated in comparison to other areas like trade and services

Addressing common sources of bias in studies of new-onset type 2 diabetes following COVID that use electronic health record data

Observational studies based on cohorts built from electronic health records (EHR) form the backbone of our current understanding of the risk of new-onset diabetes following COVID. EHR-based research is a powerful tool for medical research but is subject to multiple sources of bias. In this viewpoint, we define key sources of bias that threaten the validity of EHR-based research on this topic (namely misclassification, selection, surveillance, immortal time, and confounding biases), describe their implications, and suggest best practices to avoid them in the context of COVID-diabetes research

Transaction costs in an association of organic farmers in Goiania, Brazil.

This study aimed to analyse the transaction costs of an association of organic farmers located in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil. We analysed the marketing and organisation relations based on data collected at the Association for the Development of Organic Farming in Goias state (ADAO/GO)

Benefícios fiscais na cadeia da soja em Goiás: apropriação pela estrutura de intermediação.

O objetivo deste artigo foi de perceber como, na cadeia da soja, as políticas fiscais garantem competitividade a poucos em detrimento dos demais, incorrendo a uma violação dos princípios constitucionais do direito tributário, privando a determinados elos as benesses dos benefícios fiscais. Para tanto, foram levantados os atores do SAG da soja e posteriormente enquadrados nos códigos CNAEs, para serem percebidos no banco de dados da SEFAZ-GO. Com o objetivo de quantificar estas políticas, as mesmas foram definidas, dentre todas as políticas de renúncia fiscal neste Estado, como beneficiadoras de apenas um ramo industrial da SAG da soja em Goiás

Nutrient function over form: Organic and inorganic nitrogen additions have similar effects on lake phytoplankton nutrient limitation

The concentration of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is increasing in many northern hemisphere lakes, yet its use by phytoplankton and fate in the environment seldom have been quantified. We conducted 1 week, insitu, microcosm incubations across 25 lakes in northeastern North America to understand how DON, dissolved norganic nitrogen (DIN), and dissolved inorganic phosphorus (P) affected phytoplankton biomass. In addition,we tested whether lakes were limited by single macronutrients (N or P) or colimited by both. Phytoplankton biomass in 80% of lakes responded similarly to DON and DIN additions. Of the lakes where N form produced differential responses, the majority of phytoplankton communities exhibited greater biomass accumulation with DON than DIN. Colimitation was the most common type of nutrient limitation among the study lakes,followed by P limitation. Limitation type shifted with N form in 40% of the study lakes, but without consistent patterns explaining how shifts occurred. Regardless of N form, lakes with watersheds more dominated by agriculture and higher total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) tended to show P‐limited phytoplankton responses, while lakes with less agricultural watersheds and lower TDN tended to show colimited phytoplankton responses.Finally, ambient TDN and total phosphorus (TP) nutrient concentrations were stronger predictors of limitation type than ambient TDN : TP ratios. The different contributions of DON and DIN to phytoplankton biomass insome of our study lakes suggest that DON loading from surrounding watersheds may be an overlooked compo-nent in predicting phytoplankton productivity and nutrient limitation dynamics in freshwater ecosystems

Using the economic surplus method to assess economic impacts of new technologies: case studies of Embrapa.

Abstract - Assessment of economic impacts of new technologies delivers helpful information to justify investment efforts in research and development to generate new technologies. In Brazilian agricultural research and development, it?s a convention to assess economic impacts of technologies generated and adapted by EMBRAPA. As soon as new technologies are adopted, expost assessment is conducted to evaluate net benefits of its adoption. In agricultural research, the economic surplus method represents one of the suitable frameworks to measure the aggregated social benefits of a research project. With this method it is possible to estimate the return of investments by calculating a variation of consumer and producer surplus through a technological change originated by research results. Therefore, in a first step the gain of adoption i.e., increases in productivity, quality improvements, cost reduction etc. is estimated. In a second step, costs involved in generation and adaptation of the technology are enumerated. The difference between the gains and the costs of generation and transfer represents the net benefit of the technology, explained by the net present value, the internal rate of return and the benefit-costratio. The so far obtained results serve as additional information for each technology to improve its adoption by beneficiaries and to enable access to the new financing sources. Some examples of such technologies are (a) the finishing of lambs in confinement in the Brazilian semi-arid Northeast during the dry season, when feeding resources are scarce and the lamb meat prices are high; (b) strategic vermifugation of goats herds and sheep flocks in the Brazilian semi-arid areas; (c) standardized cuts for goat and sheep carcass and (d) enrichment of the native pastures in Brazilian Northeast with Cynodon dactylon for sheep production. The assessment of the economic impacts of these technologies estimated positive net present values for all four considered technologies, internal rates of return of 26.2% (a), 13.8% (b), 52.8% (c) and 31.0% (d) and the benefit-cost-ratios of 2.92 (a), 1.19 (b), 11.64 (c) and 3.37 (d)

Impactos econômicos de novas tecnologias: um estudo de caso da Embrapa Caprinos.

A avaliaçao de impactos de tecnologias permite o levantamento de informações extremamente relevantes para justificar os esforços direcionados à pesquisa e desenvolvimento no intuito de gerar novas tecnologias. Na pesquisa agropecuaria brasileira, a avaliaçao de impactos das tecnologias geradas pela Embrapa está se tornando algo rotineiro. Assim que novas tecnologias passam a ser adotadas, avaliaçôes ex-post sao conduzidas para estimar os beneficios liquidos de sua adoçao. Para tanto, num primeiro passa, os beneficios obtidos com a adoçao, como aumento de produtividade, melhoria da qualidade, reduçao de custos etc. sao estimados. Em seguida, sao levantados os custos da geraçao, adaptaçao e transferência da tecnologia para os usuarios. A diferença entre os beneficios da adoçao e os custos de geraçao, adaptaçao e transferência representa o beneficio liquido, expresso pela valor presente liquido e pela taxa interna de retorno. Os resultados obtidos, até entao, representam uma informaçao adicional para cada tecnologia, favorecendo sua adoçao pelos beneficiários e permitindo o acesso a novas fontes de fomento à pesquisa e desenvolvimento. Um exemplo de tecnologia gerada com participaçao da Embrapa e adotada por produtores rurais no Semi-Arido é a terminaçao de cordeiros em confinamento, durante a estaçao seca, quando a base alimentar é reduzida e os preços da carne sao elevados. A avaliaçao dos impactos econômicos dessa tecnologia determinou uma taxa interna de retorno de 32,0% para os investimentos feitos em pesquisa e desenvolvimento na Embrapa, o que é bem superior às alternativas disponiveis para aplicaçao do recurso

Evolução da produção e do mercado mundial do feijão.

Realizou-se uma avaliação do mercado internacional de feijão, considerando produção, exportação e importação, mostrando o comportamento e oscilações dos principais países

Sistema de avaliação dos impactos econômicos e ambientais da Embrapa - Estudo de caso.

Resumo: Recursos para pesquisa agrícola são escassos e podem ser utilizados em outras opções de investimento. Dessa forma, avaliar os retornos econômicos que a pesquisa pública gera para a sociedade é fundamental para justificar os recursos alocados, além de incentivar seu uso nos projetos mais eficientes. No entanto, em busca do desenvolvimento sustentável, o retorno econômico não é o único que deve ser almejado. A pesquisa deve também desenvolver tecnologias que não degradem o meio ambiente ou, por outro lado, buscar identificar quais os impactos negativos que as tecnologias possam vir a gerar quando adotadas, facilitando medidas mitigadoras. Tendo isto em vista, a Embrapa tem realizado avaliações de impactos econômicos e ambientais de suas tecnologias, que procuram mostrar o retorno gerado pelos investimentos, assim como identificar quais os efeitos causados no meio ambiente. Este trabalho apresenta a metodologia de avaliação econômica e ambiental que tem sido utilizada na Embrapa, exemplificada por avaliações de duas tecnologias desenvolvidas pela Empresa: ?Eucalyptus benthamii ? tolerante a geadas severas? e ?Terminação de cordeiros em confinamento?