This article investigates the effects of fiscal policy shock in the Brazilian economy using quarterly data during the period between January/1995 and December/2007. We follow the agnostic procedure suggested by Monford and Uhlig (2005) to verify separately the impact of the unexpected positive...

This paper uses Brazilian quarterly data to estimate the impact of taxes over GDP per capita. The econometric results show a negative and statistically significant impact of the overall tax burden over per capita GDP. In average, an increase of 1 percent in the overall tax burden decreases GDP...

The objective of this study is to shed light on the determinants of criminality rates in Brazil. A panel data model was estimated using Brazilian states’ data. Our main result suggests that income inequality plays an important role in the determination of the crime rate. Furthermore, there are...

This study aims at shedding light the question on the criminality in Brazil. Previous analyses have concentrated on the impact of social factors, as for instance inequality, on criminality, nevertheless without making explicit the mechanism by which this variable works. The main hypothesis here...

The objective of this paper is to investigate the returns to schooling issue for Brazil based on four distinct methodologies, in order to reach a reliable estimate for this type of measurement. The first is based on a simple estimate of the returns to schooling equation by OLS. However,...

This article estimates the monetary policy rule followed by the Brazilian Central Bank for setting its main policy instrument, the SELIC rate, for the period after the Real Plan. In order to overcome the uncertainty over the dates at which changes in parameters occurred, this paper uses...

It was significant the reduction of child mortality rate associated with waterborne diseases in Brazil in the last two decades. Applying an epidemiological model we were able to identify that not only improvement in sanitation coverage as well as access to educational and health services were...

This article estimates the stance of fiscal policy using the framework of conditional forecasting to evaluate the stance in Brazil since 1997. This indicator is measured as the deviation of forecast of the output gap conditional to the observed values and steady-state values of the instruments...

This article verifies the occurrence of a real estate bubble in the Brazilian economy. Overall, our results suggest the existence of a bubble in the real estate sector of the economy. The Austrian School of economics provides a solid explanation to this phenomenon, which are reinforced by...