Ecological fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation policy: a transaction costs analysis of Minas Gerais, Brazil

This paper addresses the influence of ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) on the policy-making process of adopting local protected areas (PA) by municipal governments. Framed on the transaction-cost politics (TCP), it argues that an EFT schema designed at the state level may affect the expected payoff/costs of local level decisions and the time length to create PA. The mixed research design is composed of two parts: first, a descriptive analysis detailing the evolution of EFT in the state of Minas Gerais since the beginning until its current version; second, an event history analysis of municipal PA adoption from 1966 to 2013. The conclusion suggests that, while there is an overall increase in municipal PA after the introduction of EFT, some design aspects of the instrument such as uncertainty and monitoring costs slowed and flattened that increase.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Science (UID/ CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

The adoption of ecological fiscal transfers: an empirical analysis

The ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) from states to municipalities were adopted by 16 of the 26 Brazilian states since 1990s to stimulate and compensate districts for achieving some environmental goals. This study aims to understand the adoption of this economic-policy instrument by Brazilian states and argues that the vertical relations between the federal and state governments increase the EFT adoption. The hypotheses are derived from the transaction-costs politics and the institutional collective action frameworks, namely built in legislative decision-making costs and commitment costs, and are empirically tested using event history analysis for the period of 1990–2015. The conclusions point to the idea that the adoption rate increases in non-electoral years, suggesting that politicians tend to avoid conflicts during electoral years. They tend to minimize the costs related to the legislative decision-making process. Also, the coordination of the central government has the potential for facilitating the adoption of EFT. More broadly, the transaction cost-politics framework and the institutional collective action framework can explain EFT adoption partially.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Research Center in Political Science of the University of Minho and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds (UID/CPO/00758/2013). Special acknowledgment is due to Dr. Irene Ring, received Felipe Paulo in her research group in July 2017. She introduced him to the literature of policy mix and ecological fiscal transfers (EFT). Many thanks also to Nils Droste for providing part of his database. Naturally, all possible shortcomings in this paper are the responsibility of the authors

An analysis of delay in implementing ecological fiscal transfers in Brazil

This paper sheds light on the cases of delay, in some cases interruptions and cancellations of criteria, that followed the adoption of ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) by Brazilian states. Using the transaction costs-politics framework to analyze the policy-making process, the central argument is that state legislatives are likely to weight benefits and costs at the formulation stage. At the implementation stage, legislatives delegate the role of refining EFT procedures to state agencies and, as such, increase the costs they incur. The empirical design is based on a set of case-studies, collecting data using questionnaires devised to describe the time-lags and the interruptions and cancellations of environmental criteria. The findings provide evidence of the presence of gridlocks in the formulation stage and delegation problems in the political-bureaucratic relationship at the implementation stage. Also, the absence of a gradual increase to implement the percentage dedicated to ecological criteria in each state is likely to explain the delays in the implementation of EFT schemes. In the end, we recommend flexibility in the design of scheme and the involvement of political actors in the policy process of adopting EFT.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015–02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Science (UID/CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

Dataset on ecological fiscal transfers and municipal protected areas in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

This dataset was collected in the state government of Minas Gerais, Brazil (Instituto Estadual de Florestas), regulatory deliberation 86/2005 of the state of Minas Gerais, law 12040/1995 of the state of Minas Gerais, law 18030/2009 of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazilian law 9985/2000, and some laws/decrees that created municipal protected areas. The data was used to analyze the influence of the ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) in the policy-making process of adopting protected areas by municipal governments in the state of Minas Gerais. It has the potential to be reused in other studies to analyze the EFT at the local level. The related research article that uses this database was published under the title “Ecological Fiscal Transfers for Biodiversity Conservation Policy: A Transaction Costs Analysis of Minas Gerais, Brazil”.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Sci ence (UID/CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

Proposta e avaliação de sistema de comunicação de informação escondida em propagandas sonoras

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica, Florianópolis, 2014.Esta dissertação propõe um novo sistema de comunicação informado projetado para incorporar a informação escondida em anúncios de áudio. A informação é modulada e transmitida através de uma marca d'água em áudio digital incorporada ao sinal de áudio hospedeiro. A inserção de marca d'água é projetada para alcançar um impacto perceptual mínimo e alta robustez às distorções do ambiente, a fim de cumprir com a proposta de aplicação em marketing. A energia da incorporação está devidamente dimensionada para atingir a alta transparência. Novas técnicas de sincronização e de equalização adaptativa são investigadas e propostas para extrair as informações de forma confiável após as interferências do canal ambiente. Os resultados experimentais, utilizando canais ambientes simulados e reais, ilustram o desempenho do sistema proposto e os resultados estão em contraste a outras técnicas existentes. O objetivo deste trabalho é expor um sistema de marca d'água digital de áudio que integre em um sistema de comunicação informada escondida em propagandas sonoras, permitindo a utilização deste sistema em aplicações de marketing.This dissertation proposes a new informed communication system designed to embed information hidden into audio advertisements. The information is modulated and transmitted through a audio digital watermark embedded into the audio signal host. The watermark embedding is designed to achieve minimal perceptual impact and high robustness to environment distortions in order to comply with the proposed application in marketing. The embedding energy is properly scaled in order to achieve high transparency. Novel synchronization and adaptive equalization techniques are investigated and proposed to reliably extract the information after the channel interferences. Experimental results using simulated and real environment channels illustrate the performance of the proposed system and results are contrasted to other existing techniques

Reconceptualising ecological fiscal transfers to sustainable development perspective

Ecological fiscal transfers (EFTs) is a policy schema that uses ecological indicators to allocate revenues to local governments. Such intergovernmental fiscal transfers are also suited to address social policies, such as the protection of indigenous land and the reduction of infant and child mortality rates. This study offers a new conceptualisation of EFT to achieve sustainable local development that brings together economic, ecological, and social perspectives. Framed on the theories of environmental federalism, fiscal federalism, and public policy, this paper unfolds the concept of sustainable fiscal transfers (SFTs) rather than the more conventional EFTs. SFTs expand the potential of the EFT to other policies, functioning as a policy tool to reach goals in social, economic and environmental policies at the local level. In order to illustrate this new conceptualisation, it describes the SFTs as a Brazilian state policy.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Science (UID/CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

Microservice Architecture Proposal for a Social CRM System

Artigo apresentado no I Workshop de Informação, Dados e Tecnologia, realizado entre nos dias 04 e 06 de setembro de 2017, na cidade de Florianópolis (SC), no Auditório do Espaço Físico Integrado (EFI) da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).A explosão informacional, impulsionada, principalmente, pelo uso massivo de serviços da Web 2.0 é vista como um desafio para as noções tradicionais do CRM, considerando-se que o consumidor passa a ter um papel ativo no relacionamento com a empresa. Neste contexto, surge o CRM Social que é construído a partir da integração das estratégias tradicionais da Gestão de Relacionamento com o Cliente com ferramentas capazes de recuperar, armazenar e analisar informações coletadas das redes sociais. Por meio de uma pesquisa qualitativa e aplicada, este artigo busca abordar os conceitos das áreas de Gestão de Relacionamento com o Cliente, CRM Social e Web 2.0, enumerando as características e benefícios oferecidos. Baseando-se nestas definições, propõe uma arquitetura de microsserviços para um sistema de CRM Social, que, apesar de aplicável para o enquadramento em questão, deverá ser testada com o intuito de determinar se a mesma atende aos requisitos propostos, visando performance e acurácia nas análises.The informational explosion, driven mainly by the massive use of Web 2.0 services, is seen as a challenge to the traditional conceptions of CRM, considering that the consumer starts to play an active role in the relationship with the company. In this context, Social CRM emerges, which is built on the integration of traditional Customer Relationship Management strategies with tools capable of retrieving, storing and analyzing information collected from social networks. Athwart a qualitative and applied research, this article pursues to grapple the concepts of the areas of customer relationship management, Social CRM and Web 2.0, enumerating the characteristics and benefits offered. Based on these definitions, it proposes a micro-service architecture for a Social CRM system, which, although applicable to the context in question, should be tested in order to determine whether it meets the proposed requirements, aiming to reach the desired performance and accuracy levels in analysis tasks

EXPERIÊNCIAS INTERNACIONAIS NO USO DAS TRANSFERÊNCIAS FISCAIS ECOLÓGICAS PARA A CONSERVAÇÃO DA BIODIVERSIDADE

No início dos anos 90, o Brasil foi o país pioneiro na adoção de modelos de transferências fiscais baseados em indicadores ecológicos (RING, 2008a). Portugal (SANTOS et al., 2012) e França (BORIE et al., 2014; SCHRÖTER-SCHLAACK et al., 2014) também adotaram modelos de transferências fiscais semelhantes. Outros países, como Alemanha (RING, 2008b; SCHRÖTER-SCHLAACK et al., 2014), Suíça (KÖLLNER; SCHELSKE; SEIDL, 2002) e Polônia (SCHRÖTER-SCHLAACK et al., 2014), já possuem estudos que simulam modelos de transferências fi scais ecológicas (TFE), seja teoricamente, ou já inseridos no processo político. A partir dessa contextualização, este artigo tem como objetivo fazer uma revisão da literatura existente, apresentando as similaridades e as diferenças entre os modelos de TFE. A principal contribuiçãodeste estudo é apresentar o estado-da-arte da literatura internacional sobre a temática, com foco nas políticas para a conservação da biodiversidade.Palavras-chave: Transferências fi scais ecológicas, políticas para a conservação da biodiversidade, Brasil, Portugal e França