Elaine Aparecida Fernandes

Padrão de consumo de alimentos no Brasil

Food purchasing in Brazil has undergone major changes in the last few decades caused by structural shifts such as urbanization, changes in demographic characteristics and increase in participation of women in the labor force. Therefore, it is necessary to identify thoroughly new consumption patterns of families, especially concerning determinants of food purchasing decision. The objective of this study was to understand the consumption pattern of Brazilian families for food products by means of a qualitative response variable model including eighteen food products using POF 2002/2003 data. The Probit model was chosen to estimate this decision. Estimation results showed that purchasing probabilities of staple foods were negative related to family monthly income, while meat, milk and other products showed a positive relation. Regional, educational and urbanization variables were also important. Households whose head is a woman have smaller purchasing probabilities in most commodities in the sample.

Degradação ambiental no estado de Minas Gerais

Agricultural activities have historically had great importance in the Economy, and within such context the environment was relegated to secondary importance. Major impacts occurred in environmental degradation terms, leading to the question about which effects towns would have withstood and which similar characteristics are among them. This study attempted to quantify the environmental degradation level of Minas Gerais State’s towns. Specifically, a multivariate analysis attempted to determine such economic, population and biological indicators causing environmental degradation; next, to quantify the degradation in those cities and, finally, to group them according to their similarities. The results showed an average degradation indicator (ID) of 86% for Minas Gerais State; it should be pointed out that more than 40% of those cities had ID values equal to 1. Additionally, other index values were shown above 0.70 that means 70% of the area degraded. The exceptions were the cities of Senator Amaral and Bom Repouso with minimum IDs of 0.04 and 0.10, respectively.

Investimento direto estrangeiro e o desempenho das exportações brasileiras

Brazil, in the 1990s, assumed a remarkable position as a host of foreign direct investment. It is worth mentioning that the service sector received the highest proportion of foreign investment. This market seeking strategy was responsible for the growth of the Brazilian imports. The results are confirmed by the performance of foreign enterprises into different groups of activities. Those enterprises with majority of foreign capital have increased their imports the most from 1995 to 2000. Therefore, during the 1995-2000 period, this study does not support the view that foreign investment has directly improved the performance of the Brazilian exporting sector.

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil and Mexico: An Empirical Analysis☆

Abstract This paper analyzes the foreign direct investment determinants in Brazil and Mexico during the period 1990 to 2010, in order to identify common and divergent characteristics that affect FDIs attraction. For this purpose, it was constructed an analytical model estimated using the Vector Error Correction Model (VEC). From the results, it was noted that in Brazil the main multinationals’ strategy is the market seeking - linked to the size of the domestic market-, and, in Mexico, the dominant strategy seems to be efficiency seeking, related to the importance of trade liberalization and the historical flows to attract FDI.

CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO E EMISSÃO DE CO2 POR COMBUSTÍVEIS FÓSSEIS: UMA ANÁLISE DA HIPÓTESE DA CURVA DE KUZNETS AMBIENTAL

A preocupacao contemporânea com meio-ambiente instiga questionamentos quanto aos efeitos do crescimento economico na degradacao do ambiente natural e quanto a sustentabilidade do modelo de desenvolvimento. Utilizando uma amostra de 42 anos para 13 paises, o presente trabalho verifica que a relacao entre crescimento economico e emissoes de gas carbonico tem a forma logaritmica, crescendo a taxas decrescentes. A funcao obtida e utilizada para prever as emissoes brasileiras para as proximas decadas ate 2050. Por meio das projecoes, e possivel inferir que as emissoes de combustiveis fosseis no Brasil atingirao um nivel insustentavel durante a decada de 2020, sendo necessario um esforco por parte dos agentes economicos e publicos no sentido de se adotar medidas para garantir a sustentabilidade ambiental do crescimento economico nacional.

Compensação e incentivo à proteção ambiental: o caso do ICMS ecológico em Minas Gerais

The Ecological ICMS was first used to distribute a share of the ICMS revenue in the ParanAi state in 1991. This pioneer experience originated from counties’ claims which argued that their economies were harmed by land use restrictions, mainly because they were watershed protection areas or their territory was part of a conservation unit. Responding to these claims, the state government changed the ICMS allocation criteria, favoring those counties with added funds. In the Minas Gerais state, the Ecological ICMS was implemented in 1995 with the “Robin Hood Law†. The objective of this study was to evaluate the Ecological ICMS in Minas Gerais as an instrument for compensation and incentive. Production and preservation indexes were calculated for all Minas Gerais counties and a panel data model was used to verify the relationship between the amount of Ecological ICMS received and the protected area in each county. Results showed the creation of a conservation unit would compensate most of Minas Gerais counties because of the Ecological ICMS, although the attractiveness of the conservation option has been declining systematically over the years. Regarding the incentive effect of the Ecological ICMS, results showed that the Ecological ICMS really compensates and incentives Minas Gerais counties to preserve the environment because there is a direct relationship between the amount received from the Ecological ICMS and the growth of protected areas in Minas Gerais counties.

AGRONEGÓCIO E INVESTIMENTO DIRETO ESTRANGEIRO: UMA ANÁLISE DO IMPACTO SOBRE AS EXPORTAÇÕES BRASILEIRAS

O agronegocio vem contribuindo com superavits expressivos na balanca comercial nos ultimos anos. Esses superavits serviram para contrabalancar deficits em outros setores e foram fundamentais para a obtencao dos grandes superavits da balanca comercial a partir de 2002 O Brasil, na decada de noventa, assumiu posicao de destaque como importante receptor de investimento direto estrangeiro (IDE). O objetivo deste trabalho e avaliar ate que ponto a entrada de IDE no agronegocio levou a um aumento da exportacao do setor. O metodo utilizado na investigacao foi a analise multivariada discriminante. Esse metodo e bastante adequado, ja que possibilita identificar grupos de atividades que mais exportam e, assim, fornece ferramentas de planejamento as agencias governamentais na construcao de politicas que possibilitem alocacao do IDE de acordo com os objetivos da politica economica. Os resultados mostraram que o volume de IDE nao possui qualquer relacao na distincao entre os grupos de atividades que mais exportam, o que sugere que seu montante nao esta relacionado com maiores quantidades exportadas. -------------------------------------------------Agribusiness has been generating huge trade surpluses in the last few years. These surpluses were crucial because they compensated trade deficits in other areas and allowed Brazil to have a general trade surplus from 2002 on. Brazil assumed an important position as receiver of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the nineties. The objective of this paper is to evaluate whether the incoming of FDI caused an increase on agribusiness exports. The methodology was multivariate discriminant analysis. This method is suitable because it allows the identification of more exporting activities and provides planning tools to policy makers to design FDI allocation policies. Results showed that the volume of FDI does not have any relationship in the distinction of more exporting activities, which suggests that this amount is not related to more exports.

INVESTIMENTO ESTRANGEIRO DIRETO E O SETOR DE SERVIÇOS DE TELECOMUNICAÇÕES BRASILEIRO

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the capacity of technological innovation from domestic and foreign firms in the telecommunications sector. To estimate the capacity for technological innovation, the index of capacity for innovation was created, based on micro data of “Pesquisa de Inovacao Tecnologica”. The data showed no distinction between innovation intensity in either domestic or foreign firms, which presented average indexes of 0.4265 and 0.4196, respectively. In this context, it is concluded that the activity of innovation generation in Brazil (considering domestic and foreign companies), as measured by R & D activities internally developed in the company, there was not for adaptation of externally generated innovations, which is worrying, because currently are necessary expenses in significant R & D only to imitate.

Determinantes estructurales en la difusión de las patologías del agua en Brasil

The main objective of this article is to analyze variables describing quality of living and the environment in the Brazilian population, focusing on waterborne diseases and sanitation. To do so, this work used factor analysis and a panel data econometric model. The results reveal that percentage increases in sanitation levels decrease the number of hospitalizations at an even greater percentage magnitude. This suggests that investing in sanitation would greatly impact the prevention of outbreaks, because factors such as coverage for water utilities in urban areas and water quality are some of the principal aspects that determine morbidity rates.