Political corruption is considered a major impediment to economic development, and yet it remains pervasive throughout the world. This paper examines the extent to which government audits of public resources can reduce corruption by enhancing political and judiciary accountability. We do so in...

The extent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon grew significantly in the last 20 years. Approximately 400,000 km2 of tropical forest were cleared from 1978 to 1998. Land conversion to pasture and crop areas were the main sources of deforestation, though the contribution of logging increased...

In this study we calculate the optimal commodity tax structure for Brazil. The micro-simulations are based on a complete demand system estimated with a flexible functional form [Almost Ideal Demand System, by Deaton and Muellbauer (1980)]. The data source is a 1995/96 national household budget...

This work is a pioneer effort to estimate supply and demand of automobiles in Brazil with a Discrete Choice model in a differentiated product oligopolistic market. We apply a Nested Logit model to the demand side and assume differentiated product price-setting firms on the supply side to...

Commodity taxes play an important role in Brazil and raise around 60% of the total tax revenue. This heavy reliance renders commodity taxation one of the main tools available to the government for collecting revenue and securing redistribution. In fact, Brazilian income inequity is one of the...