'Revista da Biologia, Reitoria da Universidade de Sao Paulo'
Abstract
The Brazilian capital markets, in special the stock market, apparently had great developmentin the 90's -mainly one looks at market capitalization, traded volume and new issues. However, several signs of decline appeared at the end of the decade reduction of volume traded and new issues. High interest rates and CPMF are commonly blamed for this contraction. This work shows thatthe referred development was an illusion since 1) the number of public firms was declining since the beginning of the decade, and 2) market concentration was increasing (i.e., only a small number of firms took advantage ofthe expansion). Some elements indicate thatthe low protection for minority investors is one of the reasons for the atrophy of the Brazilian capital markets
