Measuring the Contribution of Social Policies to Regional Inequality Dynamic in Brazil

We decompose the recent changes in regional inequality in Brazil into its components, highlighting the role of spatially blind social programs. We aggregate personal income micro data to the state level, differentiating 9 income sources, and assess the role of these components in the observed changes in regional inequality indicators. The main results indicate that the largest part of the recent reduction in regional inequality in Brazil is related to the dynamics in the market-related labor income, with manufacturing and services favoring inequality reduction. Labor income in agriculture, retirement and pensions, and property rents and other sources favored concentration. The social programs Bolsa Família and Benefícios de Prestação Continuada are responsible for more than 24% of the reduction in inequality, although they account for less than 1.7% of the disposable household income. Such positive impact on regional concentration is impressive, since the goals of the programs are clearly non-spatial.

On the Stability of Phantom K-essence Theories

We show that phantom dark energy, if it is described by a K-essence theory, has three fundamental problems: first, its hamiltonian is unbounded from below. Second, classical stability precludes the equation of state from crossing the ``Lambda-barrier'', $w_\Lambda=-1$. Finally, both the equation of state and the sound speed are unbounded -- the first, from below, the second, from above -- if the kinetic term is not bounded by dynamics.Comment: Replaced with accepted version (minor changes, 1 reference added). Revtex4, 4 pages (double column), 1 figur

Does a longer commuting time increase the probability of being victim of urban violence? The evidence from Brazilian metropolitan regions

Empirical evidence about the influence of exposure to public spaces on victimization strongly support the routine activities theory but, maybe reflecting the difficult of available data, specific evidence about the influence of the commuting on probability of victimization is not abundant. As registered by United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODOC, 2012), Brazil is one of the most violent country of the world, with homicide rates around 27.1 (homicides per one hundred thousand people) in 2011, the third highest rate among Latin America countries (behind of only Colombia and Venezuela). This situation, in fact, reflect a general situation of high violence related to other kinds of crime in the country; as related to the violence associated to robbery, for example, the numbers of UNDOC (2012) for 2010 put Brazil, with rates (occurrences per one hundred thousand) of robbery and of theft among the three most violent Latin American Countries. But the problem of urban violence is neither the only substantive urban problem of Brazilian big urban centers, nor it is dissociated to other urban problems in these centers. Besides the risk of being victim of urban violence, visitors or inhabitants of Brazilian metropolitan regions must face with the problem of low mobility in these cities. The very bad quality of public transport together with public indirect subsidies for using individual transport make short distance locomotion a very high time demand action (IPEA, 2013). According to the more recent information of PNAD (PNAD 2012), the average commuting time for the inhabitant of Brazilian metropolitan regions was around 40.8 minutes in 2012, a very high number if compared to metropolitan regions around the world (Pereira and Schwanen, 2013; Silveira Neto et al. 2014). In this paper, we analyze this relationship using a large nationally representative cross-section sample of Brazilian individuals for 2009 using more traditional multivariate regressions and propensity score matching techniques to create counterfactuals. We also perform robustness checks, by applying different estimators (Abadie and Imbens, 2002), and implement a simulation-based sensitivity analysis that supports a causal interpretation of the results (Ichino wt al. 2008). We find that individuals with more than one hour of commuting have an overall 2.1% increase in the probability of being victim of robbery, with no robust impact on theft. Also, following the exposure literature we find larger effect on the probability of robbery victimization on women when compared with men, 2.5% and 2.2% respectively

Measuring the Contribution of Social Policies to Regional Inequality Dynamic in Brazil

We decompose the recent changes in regional inequality in Brazil into its components, highlighting the role of spatially blind social programs. We aggregate personal income micro data to the state level, differentiating 9 income sources, and assess the role of these components in the observed changes in regional inequality indicators. The main results indicate that the largest part of the recent reduction in regional inequality in Brazil is related to the dynamics in the market-related labor income, with manufacturing and services favoring inequality reduction. Labor income in agriculture, retirement and pensions, and property rents and other sources favored concentration. The social programs Bolsa Família and Benefícios de Prestação Continuada are responsible for more than 24% of the reduction in inequality, although they account for less than 1.7% of the disposable household income. Such positive impact on regional concentration is impressive, since the goals of the programs are clearly non-spatial

Dissecting convergence: occupation rates, structural changes, and sectoral factor reallocations behind regional growth

Most studies on convergence analyze the dynamics of per capita income, instead of the theoretically more appropriate product per worker (PPW). This study deals with the latter, providing information on the dynamics of regional product, net of the regional dynamics of occupation rates. It also assesses the contribution of different sectors to regional growth dynamics, stressing the role of sectoral structure changes in the regional dynamics of PPW, bringing some ideas from economic development literature into the convergence debate. Finally, the study analyzes the possible influence of factor reallocation among sectors to regional growth. Empirical evidence on the case of Brazilian states in the period 1981-1997 is offered

Migração Inter-Regional no Brasil: Evidências a partir de um Modelo Espacial

This work looks for empirical evidence about the determinants of inter-regional migration in Brazil. In this investigation, it considers both the importance of human capital theory, by focusing income expectation, and the importance of location or neighbors of states, by controlling for neighbors’ attractive characteristics. The results point out several important aspects of Brazilian migration. First, spatial controls are fundamental to determinate the role of income expectation in net rate of inter-regional migration, consequently, previous works sub estimate the role of this variable in Brazil internal migration. Second, social and natural local attractive characteristics, besides income expectation, are also important to explain the net rate of inter-regional migration in Brazil.Migração Regional, Capital Humano, Modelo Espacial, Dados em Painel