Does Aid Cause Trade? Evidence from an Asymmetric Gravity Model

Anderson and vanWincoop (2003) developed what has become the standard framework for framing and interpreting empirical work using the gravity model. Its main advantage is that it recognizes and tackles the issue of endogeneity of prices. Hoverer, two shortcomings of their framework are that 1) it relies heavily on an assumption of symmetry among countries; and 2) it requires nonlinear estimations. For issues related to North-South trade, the assumption of symmetry is problematic. In this paper we develop an asymmetric extension of the Anderson-vanWincoop framework appropriate to the analysis of North-South trade. To avoid nonlinear estimations, we also use an appropriately extended version of Baier and Bergstrand’s (2006) method of estimating a linear approximation to the model—thus permitting estimation using (“good old”) OLS and easily compute comparative statics. As an illustration of its use, we examine the empirical link between foreign aid and trade. The results are striking. The coefficients are positive and significant, matching a long list of empirical results in the aid and trade literature. However, the comparative statics shows that aid affects prices so as to reduce the volume of trade of non-donor Northern exporters. Since most Northern countries are non-donors, the total volume of exports from the North actually decreases.Foreign aid, trade, gravity

Sports Tourism in Rural Communities: Small Events, Big Impacts

While the literature supports sports tourism as an effective economic development strategy, small to medium-sized rural communities often do not have the resources to promote mega sports events. This paper presents estimates of the 44th Annual Racer Roundup College Rodeo’s economic impact. In addition to providing a case study of a relatively minor event, the aimed contribution is twofold: it offers solutions to typical challenges faced when estimating smaller-scale events’ economic impacts, and it suggests a simple way to obtain benchmark values for the magnitude of the results. Evidence suggests that the total output generated, given the cost to set up the rodeo, was considerably larger than if the same amount was invested in other traditional rural sectors. The primary catalyst for this result was the tourists’ expenses, in line with the regional economic development export base theory

Baba Is You: Doing Things With Words

Baba is you is a 2D electronic game in which the player-controlled character pushes word-blocks around in order to build sentences, which make up the rules governing the simulated environment. With Baba is you as the case in point, we bring up parallels between video games and Wolfgang Iser’s reader-response theory, J.L. Austin’s pragmatics, and Gregory Bateson’s levels of learning. By considering self-reference paradoxes, metalanguage, and the map-territory distinction, Baba is you becomes an intuitive philosophic playground by enticing players to question not only language and its uses, but some conceptions about games – and life, as well

Políticas de Formação Continuada e Desenvolvimento Profissional Docente: uma estratégia de governamentalidade neoliberal empresarial

O artigo problematiza a ideia de desenvolvimento profissional docente - DPD, na perspectiva de uma racionalidade neoliberal. Procura-se demonstrar como as iniciativas no campo das políticas públicas impulsionam ações na direção de uma governamentalidade empresarial (DARDOT; LAVAL, 2016). Para tanto, analisa-se um documento produzido pela UNDIME, pelo CONSED, pela Fundação Carlos Chagas, pela Profissão Docente em parceria com o Ministério da Educação, o qual tem como propósito orientar municípios e Estados, na direção de estabelecer matrizes de desenvolvimento profissional para professores e professoras da Educação Básica, a partir da Base Nacional Comum para a Formação Continuada de Professores da Educação Básica. O artefato em análise se caracteriza por uma concepção de desenvolvimento profissional docente centrada em práticas de regulação e de autorregulação necessárias à construção do sujeito neoliberal ou do neossujeito. Neste sentido, o estudo identifica a prática de mentoria para a gestão da formação continuada e do DPD, com o estabelecimento de protocolos de ação para o trabalho docente

Regional Inequalities in Brazil: Divergent Readings on Their Origin and Public Policy Design

Cet article porte sur la divergence des lectures sur l'origine des inégalités régionales au Brésil, sous l'interprétation de quatre intellectuels: Celso Furtado, Wilson Cano, Francisco de Oliveira et Ruy Moreira. En outre, l'article traite de l'essence des principales politiques créées par le gouvernement fédéral brésilien depuis le milieu du XXe siècle afin d'intervenir sur le plan politique, économique et social dans les dynamiques socio-spatiales au cœur des questions régionales. Dans ce cas, nous mettons en évidence les Pôles de développement, les Axes nationaux d'intégration et de développement et la Politique nationale pour le développement régional. Les lectures et propositions d'intervention dans les questions régionales portent des idéologies et des projets politiques sous-jacents qui sont plus ou moins cohérents avec les objectifs des acteurs hégémoniques au pouvoir ou qui sont appropriés par ceux-ci. Par conséquent, il est essentiel d'élucider l'essence et les implications de ces lectures et propositions d'action concernant la problématique régionale afin de comprendre le rôle des inégalités régionales dans le panorama du développement socio-économique au Brésil.This article presents divergent readings on the origin of regional inequalities in Brazil by four scholars: Celso Furtado, Wilson Cano, Francisco de Oliveira, and Ruy Moreira. Moreover, it discusses the essence of major policies established by the Brazilian Federal Government since the mid-20th century in order to politically, economically, and socially impact the sociospatial dynamics that are at the core of the regional issue. In this sense, Development Poles, National Integration and Development Axes, and the National Policy for Regional Development stand out. Each reading and intervention proposal for the regional problematic has its own set of underlying ideologies and political projects, which may have a higher or lower degree of adherence to the purposes of hegemonic players in power, or that are appropriated by them. Therefore, elucidating the essence and the consequences of those divergent readings and proposed actions regarding the regional problematic is vital in order to understand the role of regional inequalities in Brazil's socioeconomic development landscape

Experimental Demonstration of Dual Polarization Nonlinear Frequency Division Multiplexed Optical Transmission System

Multi-eigenvalues transmission with information encoded simultaneously in both orthogonal polarizations is experimentally demonstrated. Performance below the HD-FEC limit is demonstrated for 8-bits/symbol 1-GBd signals after transmission up to 207 km of SSMF

Dual polarization nonlinear Fourier transform-based optical communication system

New services and applications are causing an exponential increase in internet traffic. In a few years, current fiber optic communication system infrastructure will not be able to meet this demand because fiber nonlinearity dramatically limits the information transmission rate. Eigenvalue communication could potentially overcome these limitations. It relies on a mathematical technique called "nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT)" to exploit the "hidden" linearity of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation as the master model for signal propagation in an optical fiber. We present here the theoretical tools describing the NFT for the Manakov system and report on experimental transmission results for dual polarization in fiber optic eigenvalue communications. A transmission of up to 373.5 km with bit error rate less than the hard-decision forward error correction threshold has been achieved. Our results demonstrate that dual-polarization NFT can work in practice and enable an increased spectral efficiency in NFT-based communication systems, which are currently based on single polarization channels

Area Specific Bicycle Planning

A recent challenge for the majority of Brazilian cities is to cope with the growth of car mobility and to maintain and improve the use and quality of public transport and active transport like cycling. One of the challenges is combining public transport with active transport, as a feeder mode, to provide an intermodal door-to-door alternative for the private car. However, these cities do not have experience with this kind of planning and their urban planners and technicians lack the know-how to start the process. To overcome this lack of experience, I-CE (Interface for Cycling Expertise) a Dutch NGO developed a methodology, called Area Specific Participative Planning (ASPP), for planning non-motorized transport modes and its articulation with public transport. The main focus of this work is to gather technical and area-specific knowledge of both I-CE consultants and the people living and working in cities in order to develop a bicycle network and an intervention plan, using a step by step approach. After the workshops and technical visits, the participating planners, which include bicycle users and other stakeholders, become the main supporters of the plans and incorporate the lessons in their work routine. The use of the methodology is in progress since 2006 in Resende and since 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, both cities in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The main innovation of the methodology is that it capacitates and involves the target city's technicians and civil society, in making decisions based on local habits, instead of only presenting foreign plans and standards without local participation.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Provisão habitacional e a (des) construção do direito à cidade: um olhar sobre a ação civil pública como instrumento de avaliação do PMCMV

Through the observation of the distortions of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program (PMCMV) present in the edification of projects in several Brazilian cities, this work seeks to answer the following questions: federal housing policies implemented in the country after the 1940s, moved toward the realization of the right to the city or just acted to promote empowerment of the private sector? The PMCMV, current housing provision model follows the principles and directives that lead to realization of this right? As the Ação Civil Pública (Law 7.347/1985) can contribute to building a more just and democratic housing policies, since it is an instrument for defending the collective interests of a society? To answer the questions, we carried out a literature review on the concept of the right to housing and the right to the city, as well as the models adopted by the housing policies implemented by the federal government since 1940. It presents and critical to structure adopted by PMCMV for the provision of social housing and, therefore, uses the Ação Civil Pública as an evaluation instrument of the PMCMV and defense of the right to the city in a moment of intense housing construction supported by the system financial. It was selected and analyzed some ACPs presented by the MPF because of the serious mistakes made in the aforementioned program. We also present some MPF recommendations to the government restores the right to decent housing to hyposufficient. Thus, given the absence of civil society in the formulation, implementation and decision-making in PMCMV, we highlight the importance of the MPF as a new actor political and ACP as a relevant rights protection instrument to the city to beneficiaries of social housing programs produced by the state. The final considerations are intended to show that the housing provision when formulated without the participation of civil society, even in democratic contexts, intensifies the struggle for urban land, leading to policy legalization process, ie, the direct intervention of the judiciary in acts of the Executive.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Com a constatação das distorções do Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida (PMCMV) presente na edificação dos empreendimentos em diversas cidades brasileiras, este trabalho de investigação procura responder as seguintes questões: as políticas federais de habitação implementadas no Brasil, após a década de 1940, se moveram em direção à efetivação do direito à cidade ou apenas atuaram no sentido de promover um empoderamento do setor privado? O PMCMV, atual modelo de provisão habitacional, segue os princípios e diretrizes que conduzem a concretização desse direito? Como a Ação Civil Pública (Lei 7.347/1985) pode contribuir para a construção de políticas habitacionais mais justas e democráticas, já que se constitui num instrumento de defesa dos interesses coletivos de uma sociedade? A fim de responder tais questões, faz-se uma revisão de literatura acerca do conceito de direito à moradia e à cidade, bem como dos modelos adotados pelas políticas habitacionais implementadas pelo governo federal a partir de 1940. Apresenta-se e crítica-se a estrutura adotada pelo PMCMV para a construção de moradias populares e, para tanto, utiliza a Ação Civil Pública como um instrumento de avaliação do PMCMV e de defesa do direito à cidade num momento de intensa provisão habitacional apoiada pelo sistema financeiro. Foi selecionada e analisada, dentre outras, a ACP nº 0012584-70.2011.403.6119, que tramita na 1ª Vara Federal de Guarulhos (SP). A referida ACP foi proposta pelo MPF em desfavor da União Federal e da Caixa Econômica Federal enfatizando mudanças nos critérios de seleção dos candidatos do referido programa, tendo em vista a comercialização de vagas e a cobrança indevida de taxas de inscrição das organizações não governamentais responsáveis pela sua execução. Neste sentido, a ACP surge como um relevante instrumento de defesa do direito à cidade aos beneficiários do PMCMV. As considerações finais têm por objetivo assinalar elementos de caráter pedagógico, educativo, preventivo, relacional e de esclarecimento sobre a relevância da construção de uma política habitacional que conduza a verdadeira justiça urbana, ainda que por meio da sua judicialização, ou seja, da intervenção direta do Poder Judiciário nos atos do Poder Executivo

De morador de rua a criminoso

Nesse artigo problematizamos os discursos que operam na objetivação e subjetivação de moradores de rua como criminosos, a partir da análise de textos de jornais e outros documentos públicos produzidos por ocasião dos 108 assassinatos de moradores de rua de uma capital do nordeste brasileiro entre 2010 e fevereiro de 2014. Abordamos a noção de identidade biográfica relacionada à produção de uma subjetividade criminosa dos moradores de rua, com base nas teorizações de Michel Foucault. Em seguida, tomamos as contribuições de Giorgio Agamben sobre a vida nua, demarcando a relação de abandono da vida nua com a política nas sociedades modernas. Por fim, abordamos os efeitos de verdade que estes discursos produzem nas práticas sociais cotidianas.In this article we problematize the discourses that act on the objectivation and subjectivation of homeless people as criminals, through the analysis of texts from newspapers and other public documents produced on the occasion of the 108 murders of homeless people in a capital city from Brazilian northeast, between 2010 and February 2014. Based on Michel Foucault's theory, we discuss the notion of biographical identity related to the production of a criminal subjectivity of the homeless. Then we take the contributions of Giorgio Agamben on bare life, demarking the relation of abandonment of the bare life with politics in modern societies. Finally, we discuss the effects of truth that these discourses produce in everyday social practices