Debt tax benefits in a high tax emerging market : evidence from Brazil

Purpose: This study hypothesizes that tax benefits encourage the use of third-party capital, and seeks to verify whether the tax benefit deriving from debts has a positive effect on Brazilian companies’ capital structure. Approach/Methodology/Design: Data on 259 nonfinancial companies over the period 20082018 are extracted from the Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ database and are analyzed through regression with dynamic data panel. The variables considered as tax benefit proxies are: marginal tax rate, kink, standardized kink and tax payment.The investigations comprise: trade off theory, pecking order theory, information asymmetry, bankruptcy costs and agency theory. Findings: A positive debt effect on capital structure, taxation as providing a systematic incentive for greater leverage, and that, Brazilian companies, despite the country’s heavy tax burden, are not taken full advantage of debt tax benefits. The study offers new evidence as to the speed of adjusting the indebtedness level relating to an optimal capital structure target. Brazilian companies have ground to contract more debt and maximize their tax benefit. Practical Implications: The study will contribute positively to the understanding of influence of high tax emerging market for the government, academia, banks, industry, managers, regulators, investors and other users. Originality/value: This study innovates by using MTR, kink and standardized kink to find debt tax benefits affecting emerging market companies’ capital structure.peer-reviewe

Programming languages in economics: a comparison among Fortran77, C++, and Java

The main objective of this paper was to compare the computer programming languages Fortran77, C++, and Java under four aspects: runtime efficiency, readability, ease of learning, and reliability. For this comparison, we revised the specialized literature on programming languages and used pieces of codes of these three programming languages. The purpose of this comparison was to provide some objective information for economists interested in learning one or more of these languages.Programming language, Runtime efficiency, Readability, Reliability, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

A changing role for universities in the periphery

An international research on interactions between universities and firms is an opportunity to investigate this subject beyond the developed countries. This project involves 12 countries from three continents: Africa (South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda), Asia (South Korea, China, India, Thailand and Malaysia) and Latin America (Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil). This paper introduces a theoretical framework to deal with this broad set of countries, their different levels of NSI formation and their different levels of development. This framework may help public policies to understand the role of universities for a country search for an “active insertion in the international division of labor”.interactions between firms and universities, National Innovation Systems, catch up processes.