Marislei Nishijima

Distribuição das rendas do petróleo e indicadores de desenvolvimento municipal no Brasil nos anos 2000S

In 1997, the Brazilian government approved the Law 9478/97, which has established new criteria for the distribution of oil royalties among municipalities and expanded the possibilities of using these resources in social areas. The aim of this paper is to investigate empirically whether the royalties distributed under this law contributed to the improvement of social indicators of the municipalities relative to the national average in the period 2000 to 2007. We used the Social Development Index Firjan (IFDM) and its three components: IFDM - Education, IFDM - Health and IFDM - Employment & Income as a measure of social development. The results show that the oil revenues produced no significant impacts on social indicators of health and education of municipalities benefited, but, surprisingly, generated negative effects on their formal sector work.

Os preços dos medicamentos de referência após a entrada dos medicamentos genéricos no mercado farmacêutico brasileiro

Abstract: This paper analyses how prices of the original brand drugs are affected by generic entry in Brazilian pharmaceutical market. Microdata from three different sources are used. To estimate the parameters we used difference in difference and fixed effect models. The results suggest that the original brand prices decreased after generic entry. Also, the results suggest that these prices are sensible to the number of generic drugs in their markets.

Decentralization and corruption: evidence from primary health-care programmes

The aim of this article is to evaluate whether there is an association between decentralization and corruption. In order to do so we analyse Brazilian health-care programmes that are run locally. To construct objective measures of corruption, we use the information from the reports of the auditing programme of the local governments of Brazil. Results point that there is no relationship between decentralization and corruption, whatever the measure of decentralization used.

A Contribution to Organizational and Operational Strategic Alignment: Incorporating Business Level Agreements into Business Process Modeling

The purpose for achieving strategic alignment between Information Technology (IT) and Business areas refers to the need of large organizations to exploit the ITs ability to deliver good products and services, thereby standing out in a competitive scenario. Within this context, Business Process Management and Service Orientation tend to gain space in organizations, since they are able to automate and optimize processes and services for the business. In the business process analysis and modeling phase, it is important to treat not only functional properties, but also process quality and operating constraints, usually grouped as Non-Functional Properties (NFP); thereby preventing that investments in IT are wasted on inefficiency and rework. In order to address these constraints, Business Level Agreements (BLA) and Service Level Agreements (SLA) should be used. The most prestigious languages for business process modeling, including Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), lack the representation of these NFPs. The approach proposed in this paper, BLA@BPMN, extends BPMN to embody BLAs, as part of a bigger approach to foster strategic alignment in this context. A BLA is specified in the process model level so that it can be mapped to a set of SLAs at the executable process level.

Análise de Concorrência no Mercado Mundial de Café Verde

Although Brazil is still the world’s leading exporter of green coffee, current studies demonstrate that Brazil has been losing power in the market, because the existing competition (rivalry and possibility to enter) imposed by countries, such as Colombia and Vietnam, is strong enough to make this market very competitive. Therefore, this paper assesses the competitive profile in the world market for green coffee using econometric tools usually employed in antitrust analysis. To evaluate the consumer behavior, price elasticity of the world demand for green coffee was estimated, by coffee type, using the Multinomial Logit Demand model. To evaluate the supply behavior, tests for market share instability were conducted, in terms of quantity, by using cointegration in panel data. Results reveal an increased competition for the Brazilian coffee from the point of view of the demand, with the maintenance of market shares over time.

Eficiência do setor hospitalar nos municípios paulistas.

The purpose of this article is to assess the degree of productive efficiency of public sector hospitals in 366 municipalities of the state in Sao Paulo between the years 1998 and 2003. In2003. In order to do so we use the stochastic frontier of production approach. The model is estimated using the flexible form of Fourier and uses the complement of the rate of hospital mortality as output and public spending with professionals and the number of beds per municipality as inputs. The results suggest that the most efficient municipalities are those that hire more beds in private hospitals, the ones which perform the highest number of admissions (economies of scale effect), the ones with smaller population (congestion effect), and the ones which show lower average time of hospitalization.

Health spending autonomy and infant mortality rates: A matter of local administrative capacity?

ABSTRACT:Brazil opted for decentralization in the provision of health services at the time of the 1988 Constitution´s promulgation. The municipalities became entirely responsible for primary healthcare provision, sharing financing responsibilities with the central government. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of health spending autonomy on infant mortality rates, using Brazilian local data from 2000 to 2007. As a measure of spending autonomy we used the share (%) of overall health expenditures financed by municipalities’ own resources. The larger the share of health expenditures which is not financed by the central government (grants), the greater the autonomy, because local governments can decide how and on what to spend these resources, and most of intergovernmental transfers to the health sector are allocated to predefined specific purposes. The fixed effects estimates, through the use of an instrumental variables approach, show that, on average, greater spending autonomy is not associated with lower infant mortality rates. However, given that local governments and populations are different in many aspects, it is reasonable to expect a heterogeneous response to decentralization. Galiani et al. (2008), for instance, assess the hypothesis that decentralization of high schools in Argentina may have increased the difference in educational outcomes. Could the same have happened to the quality of health in Brazilian municipalities? In well-managed municipalities and in which individuals participate actively and can support their preferences, fiscal autonomy ought to improve the delivery of public services. Using a measure of efficiency in the delivery of health services to split the municipalities in two groups, we got significant results for the more efficient municipalities, implying an increase in inequality. This measure corresponds to efficiency scores estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We also test for heterogeneous impacts of the Family Health Program (PSF), the most important Brazilian basic health care policy, which main expansion occurred until 2007. It is a federal Program that each municipality runs independently. Again, we find evidence of a heterogeneous response, since PSF only reduces infant mortality rates in efficient municipalities. We then confirm Galiani’s (2008) hypothesis that decentralization may help only the best to do even better.

Trends in child labor and the impact on health in adulthood in Brazil from 1998 to 2008

There is little evidence in Brazil on the impact of child labor on health status in adulthood. This study aimed to investigate trends in child labor in Brazil and estimate the long-term effects of child labor on the health of Brazilian adults, using nationally representative databases (Brazilian National Household Sample Survey) from three different years (1998, 2003, and 2008). The models were based on a two-stage linear equation and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results suggest that child labor has declined in Brazil, although the data still show patterns of early entry into the countrys labor market. Regardless of the type of work, child labor adversely affected health outcomes in adulthood, both directly (impacts on health outcomes) and indirectly (losses in educational attainment). Child labor places a long-term burden on Brazilians, jeopardizing the formation of human capital through negative impacts on health outcomes in adulthood.

A competição no mercado farmacêutico brasileiro após uma década de medicamentos genéricos: uma análise de rivalidade em um mercado regulado

The aim of this study is toevaluate the regulatory action by the Brazilian government on the segment of ethical drugs in the private pharmaceutical industry in the last decade. Two important facts guide the period: the generic Drug Law and the regulation of controlling price cap, enforced after 1999, together with the creation of the new Medicines Regulatory Board (CMED) after 2003. The article discusses the main implications of regulation from the point of view of competition, in particular on condition of entry. The discussion considers, in parallel, North American regulatory environment and its production process which, unlike Brazil, doresearches and develop pioneer drugs. The analysis points out to the increasing of competition in the sectorof drugs with expired patents.

Primary health care policies: investigation on morbidity

The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of primary health care policies on infant morbidity and mortality, by using as health indicators the number of infant hospitalizations and infant mortality rates, respectively, in Brazilian cities. Our sample comprises towns and cities in the South-East of the country, where there is some controversy about the impact of the Family Health Program on mortality for the 1999–2003 period. We found that the preventive health care model did achieve its goal of reducing hospitalizations and mortality rates in municipalities without hospitals, and to some extent, achieved its goal in municipalities with hospitals.