Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930

In this paper, we contribute to the discussion of what determines country risk by arguing that an important explanatory factor is the impact that commodities have on the capacity to pay. We use a newly created data base with state-level fiscal and risk premium data for Brazil states between 1891 and 1930 to show that Brazilian states with natural endowments that allowed them to export commodities that were in high demand ended up having higher revenues per capita and, thus, lower cost of capital. We also explain that the variation in revenues per capita across states was both a product of the variation in natural endowments and a commodity boom that had asymmetric effects among states. We end by running instrumental variable estimates using indices of export prices for each state to instrument for revenues per capita. Our IV estimates confirm our results that states with commodities that had higher price increases had lower risk premia.State public debt, fiscal decentralization, endowments, public revenue.

Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930

There is a large literature that aims to explain what determines country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign's bonds and the risk free rate). In this paper, we contribute to the discussion by arguing that an important explanatory factor is the impact that commodities have on the capacity to pay. We use a newly created data base with state-level fiscal and risk premium data for Brazil states between 1891 and 1930 to show that Brazilian states with natural endowments that allowed them to export commodities that were in high demand (e.g., rubber and coffee) ended up having higher revenues per capita and, thus, lower cost of capital. We also explain that the variation in revenues per capita was both a product of the variation in natural endowments (i.e., the fact that states cannot produce any commodity they want) and a commodity boom that had asymmetric effects among states. These two effects generated variation in revenues per capita at the state level thanks to the extreme form of fiscal decentralization that the Brazilian government adopted in the Constitution of 1891, which gave states the sole right to tax exports. We end by running instrumental variable estimates using indices of export prices for each state to instrument for revenues per capita. Our IV estimates confirm our results that states with commodities that had higher price increases had lower risk premia.

The Great Leap Forward: The Political Economy of Education in Brazil, 1889-1930

Recent research links the inequality across countries and regions to colonial institutions. This paper argues that trade shocks could alter the development path of a country or subnational units, in spite of its colonial institutions. This hypothesis is analyzed using state-level data for Brazil, a country with high regional heterogeneity in endowments. We find that positive trade shocks, or improvements in export tax revenues, increased expenditures on education per capita and education outcomes in the period 1889 to 1930. In fact, trade shocks ended up altering the inequality in education levels across states in a permanent way. The paper ends by explaining why politicians spent windfall tax revenues to invest on education.Institutions, Fiscal Federalism, Education, Long Run Development

Características de la oclusión en dentición temporal de acuerdo al género en pacientes de la clínica de especialidad de Odontopediatría de la UAEM

En el presenta trabajo se estudiaron las características de la oclusión en dentición primaria de acuerdo al género de los pacientes que acuden a la Clínica de Especialidad en Odontopediatría de la Facultad de Odontología de la UAEMIntroducción: Durante el desarrollo de la oclusión en dentición temporal, existen diferentes características que pueden ser importantes para reconocer probables alteraciones en dentición permanente, entre los que destacan, los espacios presentes entre los dientes, las relaciones oclusales de los segundos molares temporales, entre otras. Por lo que conocimiento de la tendencia de estas características por género es importante. Objetivo: Determinar las características de la oclusión en dentición primaria de acuerdo al género de los pacientes que acuden a la Clínica de Especialidad en Odontopediatría de la Facultad de Odontología de la UAEM. Metodología: Estudio transversal, en el que se incluyeron 106 pacientes de 3 a 5 años, 52% del género femenino y 48% del masculino con dentición temporal completa, sin restauraciones y con el consentimiento de sus padres. Los datos de los niños fueron registrados en una cédula, se tomaron impresiones para obtener los modelos de estudio y se analizaron de acuerdo a las condiciones de espacio, características del plano vertical, sagital y transversal. La prueba de U de Mann- Whitney fue aplicada para el análisis estadístico. Resultados: El 82% del género femenino en el maxilar inferior presento arco tipo I, y el 67% del masculino en ambos maxilares, el apiñamiento en maxilar inferior en el género femenino fue del 16% mientras que en el masculino fue del 2% con diferencias estadísticamente P=0.012. Se encontraron espacios fisiológicos de un 92%-96% en ambos maxilares y para ambos géneros, el 53% (femenino)-66% (masculino) y 76% (femenino)-74% (masculino) mostraron una mordida vertical y horizontal respectivamente de 2 mm. El 8% del género masculino presentó sobremordida cruzada anterior con diferencias estadísticamente significativas respecto al femenino P=0.018. Conclusiones: El apiñamiento en el maxilar inferior fue mayor en el género femenino, mientras que la mordida cruzada anterior fue mayor en el masculino, con diferencias estadísticamente significativas

Vacío institucional y construcción mediática de la sexualidad adolescente en Canadá y Chile : el imaginario del riesgo

Este artículo compara las narrativas de las diversas expresiones de la sexualidad adolescente a partir de una muestra de diarios de amplia circulación en Canadá y Chile, dos sociedades abiertas a procesos de cooperación e intercambio comercial e intercultural pese a estructuras jurídico-políticas, tradiciones y niveles de desarrollo diferentes. El análisis de ciertos ejes discursivos dominantes como son: riesgos asociados a la práctica de la sexualidad, legitimación de la anticoncepción como reacción al abuso sexual y autoagresiones entre los adolescentes, revela una perspectiva catastrofista de la sexualidad adolescente, conformando así un vacío informativo que limita el debate en torno a quien (estado, educadoras, padres, estudiantes) debe asumir un rol determinante en la producción y divulgación de estos contenidos. Frente al vacío institucional, emerge una respuesta adolescente que evidenciando las dudas propias de este estadio del desarrollo personal demuestra apertura a la existencia y manifestación de variadas identidades sexuales que sobrepasan la versión estrictamente dicotómica de lo masculino y femenino. Esto por sí mismo subvierte el imaginario del riesgo que recoge la prensa de mayor difusión en ambos países.This paper compares the media coverage of adolescent sexuality's narratives conveyed by a sample of mainstream newspapers in Canada and Chile, two societies committed to enhance their commercial and intercultural cooperation in spite of different juridical and political structures, traditions and developmental levels. The analysis of discursive dominant axes such as the risks associated with sexual practice, the legitimization of contraception in reaction to sexual abuse, or self-aggressions among teens reveals an informative vacuum triggered by a catastrophist perspective of adolescent sexuality that limits the debate about who (the state, educators, parents, students) must assume a determinant role in the production and outreach of such contents. In response to this institutional vacuum, an alternative teen path emerges that not only highlights the doubts inherent at this stage of the personal development, but also welcomes the existence and manifestation of diverse sexual identities, thus challenging the restricted dichotomy between masculinity and feminity. Such openness subverts the risk imaginary depicted by popular written media in both countries

On the Moyal deformation of Nahm Equations in seven dimensions

We show how the reduced (anti-)self-dual Yang-Mills equations in seven dimensions described by the Nahm equations can be carried over to the Weyl-Wigner-Moyal formalism. In the process some new solutions for the cases of gauge groups SU(2) and SL(2,R) are explicitly obtained.Comment: 16+1 pages, LaTeX, no figure

On superstatistics and black hole quasinormal modes

It is known that one can determine that lowest value of spin is $j_{min}=1$, by using the quasinormal modes of black holes, the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. In this paper, to determine $j_{min}$, we have used non extensive entropies that depend only on the probability (known as Obregon's entropies and have been derived from superstatistics), as well as non extensive entropies that have free parameters . We find that $j_{min}$ depends on the area and the non extensive parameter. In particular, for the non extensive entropies that only depend on the probability and find that the modification is only present for micro black holes. For classical black holes, the results are the same as for the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Análisis de Interacciones en Clases de Español de Primer Grado de Primaria

Este trabajo aborda la interacción profesor-alumnos en una clase de español en cuatro grupos escolares de primer grado de primaria de México, a partir de videos. Cada video fue segmentada en episodios interactivos que fueron analizados con categorías únicas estructuradas tanto para el maestro como para el alumno, según la taxonomía funcional de Ribes y López (1985): interacciones contextuales, suplementarias, selectoras, sustitutivas referenciales y sustitutivas no referenciales, y dos categorías de seguimiento didáctico. En general, en el primer grado se estructuran mayormente interacciones en el nivel funcional más sencillo, seguido por interacciones de instrucciones de seguimiento y realimentación. Asimismo, aunque en menor proporción, en dos de los cuatro grupos se presentaron interacciones en niveles funcionales más complejos

Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930

In the last few years there has been an explosion in the number of papers that aim to explain what determines country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign’s bonds and the risk free rate). In this paper, we contribute to the discussion using by showing that Brazilian states with natural endowments that allowed them to export commodities that were in high demand (e.g., rubber and coffee) between 1891 and 1930 ended up having higher revenues per capita and, thus, lower cost of capital. The link between exports and state government revenues works in the Brazilian case because of the extreme form of fiscal federalism that the Brazilian government adopted in the Constitution of 1891, giving state governments the sole right to tax exports. We create a panel of state debt risk premia and a series of state level fiscal variables and we show, using OLS, that having specific commodities gave states access capital in better terms (i.e., lower risk premium) in international markets. We also confirm our results that states with better commodities had lower risk premia when we use export price indices for each of the states as instruments for state revenue per capita.