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...

This study applies distinct methodological forest accounting approaches, following Vincent and Hartwick (1997) lines, to estimate economic depreciation of timber exploitation in the Brazilian Amazon region. Although our results may be not definitive ones due to data availability problems, this...

Air pollution concentrations have been rapidly increasing in the major urban areas of Brazil caused mainly by the increasing use of vehicles. In the presence of this negative externality, environmental regulation is required. Car emission control policies in Brazil have relied basically on...

This paper examines the effects of campaign spending limits on political competition and incumbency advantage. We study a reform in Brazil that imposed limits on campaign spending for mayoral elections. These limits were implemented with a discontinuous kink which we exploit for causal...

This paper examines the role of human capital persistence in explaining long-term development. We exploit variation induced by a state-sponsored settlement policy that attracted a pool of immigrants with higher levels of schooling to particular regions of Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th...