Amir Borges Ferreira Neto

Diferenciais salariais para o setor cultural e ocupações artísticas no Brasil

This paper analyses the wage differentials among workers from the cultural sector and the artists in Brazil using data from PNAD - a household survey conducted by the Brazilian Statistics Bureau (IBGE) - from 2002 to 2007. In order to identify the features that contribute to the differences we use the fixed effects estimator in a cohort pseudo panel model, paying attention to the correction of the selection bias using the Heckmans approach. In general, workers from the cultural sector and artists have higher wages than other workers. After correcting the selection bias and fixed effects, these differences are even higher. By the Oaxaca decomposition analysis, the cultural sector characteristics are the most important factor that generates these wage differences.

How Much Does Talent Matter? Evidence from the Brazilian Formal Cultural Industry

The goal of this paper is to evaluate how much does talent – the individual non-observed characteristics – matter to explain the wage differences between workers from the cultural industry and workers from other formal industries in Brazil. To do so we use the data from 2003 to 2008 of the Rais-Migra – MTE, which is a true panel of formal workers from Brazil, and use fixed effects estimators to capture the talent measure and the Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973) decomposition to seek for evidences of wage difference. The results imply that the talent is important in the determination of wages especially when considering formal workers in the cultural activities, occupations and workers in both cultural activities and occupation. The Oaxaca decomposition provides evidence that when considering talent, each of the groups paid their workers more per se, proving that not only the talent matter, but also that the formal cultural environment in Brazil positively discriminates their workers.

Do tourists tip more than local consumers? Evidence of taxi rides in New York City

Given the resurgence of cities as consumer centers and the importance of amenities, we revisit the differences in tipping in taxis between tourists and locals in New York City. Taxi service is an endogenous amenity; however, taxis also contribute to the demand and provision of other amenities. Using data from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, we find that tourists and theatergoers tip more than locals and non-theatergoers, and tourists who are theatergoers tip even more. These differences between tourists and locals may affect the allocation of taxis throughout the city, and hence the provision of other amenities.

Scientific output: labor or capital intensive? An analysis for selected countries

Scientific research contributes to sustainable economic growth environments. Hence, policy-makers should understand how the different inputs—namely labor and capital—are related to a country’s scientific output. This paper addresses this issue by estimating output elasticities for labor and capital using a panel of 31 countries in nine years. Due to the nature of scientific output, we also use spatial econometric models to take into account the spillover effects from knowledge produced as well as labor and capital. The results show that capital elasticity is closer to the labor elasticity. The results suggest a decreasing return to scale production of scientific output. The spatial model points to negative spillovers from capital expenditure and no spillovers from labor or the scientific output.

Does Corruption Impact the Formal-Informal Sector Income Gap? Evidence from Brazil

This paper investigates the relationship between political corruption and the informal-formal sector income gap. We focus on a sample of 476 randomly selected municipalities in Brazil, and combine individual level Census data with measures of municipal corruption. We first document the upward pressure corruption puts on the informal-formal income gap. We then utilize a measure of mismanagement by governmental officials as an instrument for corruption to show that these results are robust to plausibly exogenous variation in corruption. When disaggregating the results, we show that the effect of corruption is heterogeneous across industries, with a significant impact on the construction industry in particular.

CONSUMO DE ENERGIA E CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO: UMA ANÁLISE DO BRASIL NO PERÍODO 1970-2009

This article aims to contribute to the literature that deals with growth and energy consumption investigating the direction of causality by means of an empirical model for energy consumption and economic growth. To achieve this goal the article makes use of time series methodology and uses data from Brazil in the period of 1970 to 2009 . The results show that the direction of causality seems to be from total energy consumption to GDP, although a bidirectional causality cannot be discarded. Also, when considering household income and electricity consumption, the evidence points to a well-defined direction of causality from gross disposable income to household electricity consumption.

Fragmentação geopolítica: uma análise estrutural das propostas de separatismo no Brasil

Este trabalho tem por objetivo dar luz ao debate sobre a criacao dos novos entes federativos, trazendo elementos objetivos sobre a caracterizacao socioeconomica dos novos espacos geopoliticos e seus respectivos papeis no novo contexto espacial do sistema inter-regional brasileiro. O artigo traz resultados ineditos para a discussao, buscando, inicialmente, identificar padroes hierarquicos e de dependencia espacial e produtiva neste novo contexto federativo. Tais resultados subsidiama analise subsequente dos impactos da nova configuracao das transferencias constitucionais, que identifica pormeio de simulacoes comummodelo inter-regional de insumo-produto especialmente calibrado para as 33 regioes consideradas no estudo, nao apenas os potenciais ganhadores e perdedores, mas tambem os mecanismos de interacao espacial subjacentes a estes processos.