There is still hardly any empirical evidence on how divergent broadband technologies, and, by extension, bandwidth levels, influence GDP growth, or on the extent of spatial externalities at a regional level. Our study aims to assess the economic benefits of high-speed broadband networks within...

This paper provides new evidence for the empirical literature that investigates the presence of political cycles in fiscal policy and, more precisely, public investments in Brazil. The approach differs from most of the studies for applying the state-space modeling. The greatest benefit is to...

Firms' investment decisions involve analyzing prices, products, technologies, productive capacity and the availability of credit. These and other factors were greatly impacted by the 2009 post-crisis economic environment in Brazil. We measure the after crisis impacts of subsidized credit on the...

The literature on growth theory is rich with models attempting to explain growth differences among countries. Several variables have been proposed many of which were found to be positively related to growth. However, a major problem with these models is that the factors explaining growth are...

The last 20 years were a period of major political, economic, social, and institutional reform in Brazil. In the first half of the 1990s, reformers opened the economy to foreign trade and both direct and portfolio investment, sold off a number of large and traditional state-owned enterprises,...

This paper presents the main issues involved in estimating potential output. The objective is to describe the alternative methods and analyze their application and implications for growth forecasts and macroeconomic policy in Brazil. The text emphasizes the determinants of potential output under...

There was substantial spatial variation in labor market outcomes in Brazil over the 1990's. In 2000, about one fifth of workers lived in apparently economically stagnant municipios where real wages declined but employment increased faster than the national population growth rate. More than one...