Marcos A. M. Lima

Quality certification and performance of Brazilian firms: An empirical study

Abstract The paper studies the relationship between quality certification, as indicated by the ISO 9001 and 9002 certificates, and the performance of Brazilian firms since 1992. The comparison between the group of certified firms and an especially constructed control group indicated that, as a rule, one cannot discern differential levels of performance across the two groups for different indicators.

A demanda por energia elétrica no Brasil

The purpose of the present study is to estimate, by cointegration, the long-run elasticities, mainly the price and income, of the demand for electric energy in the three consumption categories: residential, commercial and industrial. The obtained results support the premise that the income elasticity should be near or beyond a unity, and that the magnitude of price-elasticity should be lower one, in terms of absolute value. Predictions for the electric energy consumption for the 2001-2005 period are also made

Profit margins and business cycles in the Brazilian industry: a panel data study

The paper investigates the relationship between profit margins and business cycle in the Brazilian industry during the 1992–1998 period, taking as reference a dynamic panel data model founded around a conjectural variation framework. The empirical results indicate procyclical behaviour of profit margins for the aggregate business cycle but is less clear in the case of sector-specific business cycle variables. Among the most robust results, one can highlight the roles of lagged profitability and import intensity and the negligible role of union density. Schmalensee in 1985 (American Economic Review 75, pp. 341–51) outlined three theoretical interpretations associated with the empirical model (classical, revisionist and managerial). Econometric tests on the related restrictions do not allow one to exclusively legitimate any of the three interpretations.

Skill enhancement efforts and firm performance in the Brazilian chemical industry: An exploratory canonical correlation analysis--research note

Abstract The paper aims at investigating the relationship between a group of variables portraying skill enhancement efforts and a second group of performance related variables. The results show the existence of a positive relationship between R&D and training intensities and the performance of previously ISO-certified firms, whereas that for the initially non-certified firms such result does not hold.

Market share instability in Brazilian industry: a dynamic panel data analysis

The paper investigates market share instability in the context of Brazilian industry for the 1986–1998 period. The paper proposes the use of panel data unit root tests to access market share instability for a sample of industrial firms from different sectors and therefore generalizes related time series unit root tests proposed by Gallet and List (2001). The results mostly indicate that one cannot reject the hypothesis of market share instability and therefore there exist some degree of market rivalry in the Brazilian case.

Testes de racionalidade para loterias no Brasil

O artigo investiga a prevalencia de expectativas racionais no caso de duas loterias brasileiras (Quina e Mega-Sena). A estrategia de teste se relaciona com uma condicao de ortogonalidade entre o erro condicional de previsao e o conjunto de informacao. Especificamente, o residuo de uma equacao para o preco liquido de um bilhete de loteria deveria ser nao correlacionado com as vendas. Os resultados favoreceram a hipotese de expectativas racionais somente no caso da Mega-Sena que e sujeita a ampla cobertura da midia. Claramente a Quina esta associada a um perfil distinto de apostadores.