Aderência - Liberalismo econômico e política comercial britânica em 1820-1913

O presente artigo avalia até que ponto a política comercial britânica foi liberal entre 1820 e 1913. Para tanto, faz-se uma breve apresentação da teoria liberal de comércio internacional com base no modelo Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson. Vê-se que o liberalismo comercial considera a elevação das importações, e não das exportações, o objetivo maior do comércio internacional, de modo que sua mensagem normativa apresenta a liberalização unilateral como a melhor política possível. Com base em fontes secundárias, constata-se que a política comercial britânica foi coerente com a mensagem normativa liberal ao praticar liberalização comercial unilateral. Entretanto, argumenta-se que a Grã-Bretanha objetivava exportar mais, donde se conclui que a política comercial britânica não foi strictu sensu liberal, aderindo ao liberalismo em 1820-1913.

Análise populacional dos equídeos no Semiárido Paraibano

The species of equines of the Brazilian Northeast represent primarily to those local populations of horses, donkeys and mules, which are adapted to the semiarid region and developed a key role in shaping social and historical life of the region. The Brazil has the third largest population in the world, especially in the Northeast. The aim of this study was to analyze the situation of the population of major species of equines (horses, donkeys and mules) and analise their population dynamics in a defined time period of the last decade ( 2004 to 2010). The study took into account the actual numbers of horses, donkeys and mules in the semiarid region covered by the state of Paraíba. Results show that equine populations suffered an decrease over a time period of six years. The loss was great est in the back lands and less strong in the central part of Paraíba and the donkeys suffered the largest reduction.The analysis of the situation of the population of equines that were important for the region showed a negative balance comparing population sizes between 2004 and 2010. The present study represents a basis for the development of conservation programs of equines species.Os remanescentes das espécies de equídeos do Nordeste brasileiro dizem respeito principalmente àquelas populaçõeslocais de cavalos, jumentos e burros; que estão adaptadas e desenvolveram papel fundamental na formação econômica, social e histórica da região. Devido a sua rusticidade e resistência ao ambiente pouco favorável do Semiárido são utilizados no transporte, sela, carga e tração. Estima-se que existam cerca de 570 raças locais de equídeos no mundo. O Brasil possui a terceira maior população do mundo, com destaque para o Nordeste, que além de equinos, concentra o maior registro de asininos e muares. O objetivo desse trabalho foi analisar a situação da população das principais espécies de equídeos (equinos, asininos e muares)e elencar os possíveis motivos que levaram a variação do seu efetivo. Os dados foram obtidos da Pesquisa Pecuária Municipal de 2004 a 2010,realizada periodicamente pelo IBGE. Levou-se em consideração o efetivo de equinos, asininos e muares na região abrangida pelo Semiárido no estado da Paraíba. As principais espécies de equídeos vêm sofrendo diminuições do seu efetivo. O Sertão paraibano foi a mesorregião da Paraíba que apresentou maiores perdas do efetivo de equídeos. Entre as espécies analisadas, os asininos sofreram a maior redução do seu efetivo total. A análise da situação da população das espécies de equídeos mais importantes para a região mostrou um saldo negativo do efetivo total de 2010 com relação ao efetivo de 2004. Esse estudo permite ter um embasamento prático para o planejamento de programas de preservação dessas espécies

Acetazolamide for the prophylaxis of migraine in CADASIL: a preliminary experience

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an inherited microangiopathy caused by NOTCH3 mutations. It is characterized by migraine, with or without aura, ischemic events, psychiatric and cognitive disturbances. There is no approved treatment for migraine prophylaxis in CADASIL, but acetazolamide has been anecdotally reported to be effective. We retrospectively reviewed our database of patients with a genetic diagnosis of CADASIL to identify how many of them were treated with acetazolamide for the prophylaxis of migraine. The efficacy and the tolerability of this treatment were checked looking at the clinic reports. Acetazolamide was prescribed in seven patients; the mean duration of treatment was 6 months, and the daily dose ranged from 125 to 500 mg. Three patients had a total and sustained remission, while in two patients a reduction in attacks and an improvement of the headache intensity were recorded. In one of these, acetazolamide was deliberately taken only during the migraine attack and the beneficial effect started 1 h after administration. In two patients, the drug did not produce any beneficial effect. Mild side effects were recorded in two patients. Our preliminary experience expands previous reports and confirms the possible efficacy of acetazolamide in CADASIL migraine. Based on these data, a randomized controlled trial seems worthy to be carried out to test the efficacy and safety of this drug

Schistosomal Lipids Activate Human Eosinophils via Toll-Like Receptor 2 and PGD2 Receptors: 15-LO Role in Cytokine Secretion

Parasite-derived lipids may play important roles in host-pathogen interactions and immune evasion mechanisms. Remarkable accumulation of eosinophils is a characteristic feature of inflammation associated with parasitic disease, especially caused by helminthes. Infiltrating eosinophils are implicated in the pathogenesis of helminth infection by virtue of their capacity to release an array of tissue-damaging and immunoregulatory mediators. However, the mechanisms involved in the activation of human eosinophils by parasite-derived molecules are not clear. Here we investigated the effects and mechanisms of schistosomal lipids-induced activation of human eosinophils. Our results showed that stimulation of human eosinophils in vitro with total lipid extracts from adult worms of S. mansoni induced direct activation of human eosinophils, eliciting lipid droplet biogenesis, synthesis of leukotriene (LT) C4 and eoxin (EX) C4 (14,15 LTC4) and secretion of eosinophil pre-formed TGFβ. We demonstrated that main eosinophil activating components within S. mansoni lipid extract are schistosomal-derived lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and prostaglandin (PG)D2. Moreover, TLR2 is up-regulated in human eosinophils upon stimulation with schistosomal lipids and pre-treatment with anti-TLR2 inhibited both schistosomal lipids- and LPC-, but not PGD2-, induced lipid droplet biogenesis and EXC4 synthesis within eosinophils, indicating that TLR2 mediates LPC-driven human eosinophil activation. By employing PGD2 receptor antagonists, we demonstrated that DP1 receptors are also involved in various parameters of human eosinophil activation induced by schistosomal lipids, but not by schistosomal LPC. In addition, schistosomal lipids and their active components PGD2 and LPC, triggered 15-LO dependent production of EXC4 and secretion of TGFβ. Taken together, our results showed that schistosomal lipids contain at least two components—LPC and PGD2—that are capable of direct activation of human eosinophils acting on distinct eosinophil-expressed receptors, noticeably TLR2 as well as DP1, trigger human eosinophil activation characterized by production/secretion of pro-inflammatory and immunoregulatory mediators

Democracy, Autocracy, and Sovereign Debt: How Polity Influenced Country Risk on the Peripheries of the Global Economy, 1870-1913

This article tests the influential democratic advantage hypothesis – that democratic governments have historically borrowed more cheaply than autocratic governments – in the context of the first financial globalization, from circa 1870 to 1913. We construct indicators of political regime types, then regress government bond spreads of 27 independent capital-importing countries on them. In contrast with the mainstream literature, the results suggest that democracies were associated with higher country risk. Our findings indicate that autocratic regimes had a significant advantage: democracies paid 5.7 percent more on their debt than autocracies, controlling for several financial and political variables. This gap is the equivalent of 35.4 percent of the negative effect defaults had on credit costs. Our conclusions hold when allowing for different definitions of political regime type and bond spreads. The correlations identified also find support in qualitative evidence, according to which creditors favored autocracies for being politically more stable than democracies

Essays on environmental economics and the political economy of inequality

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Economia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Economia da Indústria e Tecnologia, 2018. Do natural disasters lead to electoral sanctions? -- Land inequality and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon -- The threat of communism during Cold War: a constraint to income inequality / André Albuquerque Sant’Anna, Leonardo Weller. Bibliografia: p. 127-147This thesis presents essays on environmental economics and the political economy of inequality. As a common thread, the papers bring into light the discussion on inequality under different dimensions. The first essay - “Do natural disasters lead to electoral sanctions?” - considers the following questions: what happens to incumbent politicians when a natural disaster strikes? Does the electoral response is heterogeneous to the local provision of public goods? The departing point of this paper is to acknowledge that hydrological disasters - that is to say, disasters related to extreme rainfall - are not exogenous to the choices of the policy set. Public policies - for instance, removal of dwellings located at hillsides, sanitation, rivers‘ drainage - may affect the willingness to vote in the incumbent politician, despite its effects on natural disasters. Thus, in recognizing the possibility of endogeneity, this first essay makes use of estimation by instrumental variable, in order to obtain a consistent estimator of the effect of disasters on electoral performance. The main results show that voters, in response to the occurrence of disasters, (i) appear less at the polls and (ii) vote less on the incumbent politician. The second essay - “Land inequality and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon” - has been published in the Environment and Development Economics journal, in 2017. The paper investigates the relationship between land concentration and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. A conceptual framework is developed, which relates occupational choices under low access to land, as a consequence of land inequality, and the decision to clear land at the agricultural frontier. This model implies that land inequality affects deforestation positively. Based on data from municipalities with positive deforestation from 2002 to 2011, a model has been estimated to test this theoretical prediction. By making use of an instrumental variable, results show that there is statistical evidence to support the existence of a direct relationship between land inequality and deforestation. Results are stronger for the period 2002-2005. This might be due to command and control policies that have significantly increased the cost of clearing land since mid 2000s. The third essay - “The Threat of Communism during Cold War: a constraint to income inequality?” -, co-authored by Leonardo Weller, considers the following question: Did the threat of communism influence income distribution in developed capitalist economies during the Cold War? In order to test this hypothesis, this article addresses this question by testing whether income inequality in OECD countries is related to events linked to the spread of communism – revolutions, USSR invasions - around the world. We run a fixed effects panel for the 1950-1990 period, controlling for institutional and economic conditions and provide additional robustness tests. This paper provides a contribution to the recent literature on inequality, which stresses the importance of domestic institutions and the two World Wars but fails to address the role of the Cold War in keeping income inequality at low levels. We find a robust and negative relationship between top income shares and the distance to communist events. The results suggest that the spread of communism fostered deals between domestic elites and workers that redistributed the gains from capital in favour of labor.Esta tese apresenta três ensaios em economia do meio-ambiente e economia política da desigualdade. Como fio comum, os ensaios trazem a temática da desigualdade, em distintas dimensões - bens públicos, terra, renda, por exemplo. O primeiro ensaio - “Do natural disasters lead to electoral sanctions?” - aborda as seguintes questões: o que acontece com políticos incumbentes quando ocorre um desastre natural? A resposta eleitoral é heterogênea à provisão local de bens públicos? O ponto de partida deste artigo é o reconhecimento que desastres de natureza hidrológica - isto é, desastres relacionados a precipitação extrema - não são exógenos ao conjunto de políticas públicas escolhido. Políticas como, por exemplo, remoção de moradias em encostas, saneamento básico, drenagem de rios, podem afetar a disposição a votar no político incumbente, a despeito de seus efeitos sobre a ocorrência de desastres naturais. Desse modo, ao reconhecer a possibilidade de endogeneidade, o artigo também faz uso de estimação por variável instrumental, de modo a obter um estimador consistente do efeito de desastres sobre desempenho eleitoral. Os principais resultados encontrados mostram que os eleitores, em resposta à ocorrência de desastres, (i) comparecem menos às urnas e (ii) votam menos no político incumbente. O segundo ensaio - “Land inequality and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon” - foi publicado em 2017, na revista científica Environment and Development Economics. O artigo investiga a relação entre distribuição de terra e desmatamento na Amazônia Brasileira. Para tal, um arcabouço conceitual é desenvolvido, onde o baixo acesso a terra decorrente da concentração fundiária condiciona as escolhas ocupacionais. Nesse cenário, há um incentivo à decisão de desmatar na fronteira agrícola. Baseado em dados municipais com desmatamento positivo entre 2002 e 2011, a fim de contornar possíveis problemas de endogeneidade, estimou-se um modelo com variáveis instrumentais. Os resultados apontam para a evidência estatística de que há uma relação positiva entre desigualdade de terra e desmatamento. Os resultados são mais fortes para o período 2002-2005. Tal fato pode estar relacionado às políticas de comando e controle que aumentaram significativamente o custo de desmatar a partir de meados da década de 2000. O terceiro ensaio - “The Threat of Communism during Cold War: a constraint to income inequality?” -, em co-autoria com Leonardo Weller, trata da seguinte questão: a ameaça comunista representou uma força capaz de manter a desigualdade em níveis baixos nos países desenvolvidos, durante a Guerra Fria? Para testar essa hipótese, foi criada uma variável que mede a intensidade da ameaça comunista, a partir da distância geográfica de eventos relacionados à propagação do comunismo - revoluções, invasões da União Soviética. A estimação se deu por um modelo de painel com efeitos fixos para o período 1950-1990. O artigo fornece uma contribuição para a literatura recente sobre desigualdade, que salienta a importância de instituições domésticas e mesmo das duas Guerras Mundiais, mas não trata do papel da Guerra Fria na manutenção da desigualdade em níveis relativamente baixos. Os resultados apontam para uma relação robusta e negativa entre desigualdade e a proximidade de eventos comunistas. Esses resultados sugerem que o temor de propagação do comunismo promoveu acordos entre elites e trabalhadores, de modo a manter a desigualdade em níveis historicamente baixos

Slavery and Development in Nineteenth Century Brazil

An open access version of this article can be found in: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/wp523.2020.pdfThis article brings new evidence on the legacy of slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil to bear on the history of economic development. Its conclusions contribute to the debate raised by the new history of capitalism about the critical role played by slavery in the industrialization of the United States. We argue that the new history of capitalism lacks a comparative perspective. Brazil imported more slaves than any other country in the world and slavery lasted longer and was more widespread there than in the United States South. Rather than promoting economic growth and development, the evidence shows that slavery held back industrialization in Brazil. We also discuss the role of slavery in agricultural productivity and show that, as in the United States, the use of violence does not explain increases in the productivity of cotton plantations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio