Using data from the Brazilian Labor Monthly Survey (PME/ IBGE) for the years of 2006 and 2007, the paper investigates if the wage differential by firm size in Brazil can be explained by the predictions of the Efficiency Wage Theory. It is adopted a Switching Regression Model to estimate if large...

This paper studies the educational efficiency as determined only by the variables directly controlled by the school, isolated from the influence of other environmental characteristics, such as student's socioeconomic status, that might influence efficiency as well. An alternative application of...

This paper evaluates the diffusion of peer effects on academic achievement of 4th grade students in the Brazilian public school system. Using data from Prova Brasil 2013, the identification strategy builds on the use of an IV approach, in which the instruments for peers' performance are the...

This paper attempts to identify the climatic effect on birth outcomes in Brazil and, thus, to predict the potential impact of climate change. Panel data models indicate that excess and lack of rainfall have the most important harmful effects on newborns' health; temperature stresses and low...

Climate-sensitive health problems kill millions every year and undermine the physical and psychological well-being of millions more. To identify the climate impacts on dengue risk in Brazil, a comparative case study is used based on the synthetic controls approach. The South and Northeast...

Concern over the high rate of contagion of COVID-19 has prompted world authorities to use the strategy of isolation and social confinement as the main non-pharmacological weapon against the disease that has rapidly killed millions of people worldwide. However, there is evidence that the...