The return of the developmental State in Brazil raises revealing historical and comparative contrasts. The main contemporary difference is that developmentalism and industrial policy are being defined and pursued in far more open and participatory political contexts than was previously the case...

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of a tax incentive program targeted to small business (SIMPLES) on employment growth. The evaluation is conducted for two distinct periods, namely 1997 when the program was first implemented and 1999 when the eligibility rule was modified in order to...

The public policies on mass transit and other economic policies have been unable to avoid increasing mass transit costs and urban bus fares, which places a burden on a majority of the population depending on public transit. This study analyzes the variations in urban bus fares and households...

This article discusses the dynamics of both the size and the composition of the Brazilian aggregate tax burden (BATB) in the 1995-2007 period and presents several (linear and non-linear) econometric specifications for this last variable. Our main conclusion - based both on the analysis of the...

Faced with the extremely heterogeneous reality of small businesses and aware of the different criteria and legal structure, existing in Brazil, to its classification and framework, this paper aims to highlight the need to establish a set of articulated objectives, the target audience and the...

This paper analyses two tax reform bills that are being discussed at the Brazilian National Congress, by comparing them and pointing their advantages and drawbacks. Moreover, the paper provides four empirical contributions to the debate: i) neutral rate estimates for the new Goods and Services...

We propose an integrated public-private system designed to improve the pre-finance capabilities of micro and small enterprises (MSE), thereafter assisting them with finance to foster their innovation and/or expansion plans. The idea is to regulate a market standing on income-contingent...

The tax reform debate in Brazilian academic and political circles addresses numerous problems in our tax system, aiming to simplify it, increase its efficiency and its progressivity in order to guarantee the State's ability to provide essential public services. A relevant dimension, however, is...

This paper tries to test wether an equalized productive sector change of a Brazilian indirect tax (in Portuguese, Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados - IPI or, in English, Manufacturing Goods Tax) impacts the labour productivity of each sector. The conclusion is the following: there is no...

The current study consists in an analysis of the set of federal public policies of the Brazilian government aimed at the segment of micro, small and medium enterprises. It is not an evaluation of their impacts, but only a mapping of existent policies and a first analysis of their coverage. This...