Naja Brandão Santana

Sustainable development in the BRICS countries: an efficiency analysis by data envelopment

There is much concern about the social and environmental impacts caused by the economic growth of nations. Thus, to evaluate the socio-economic performance of nations, economists have increasingly addressed matters related to social welfare and the environment. It is within the scope of this context that this work discusses the performance of countries in the BRICS group regarding sustainable development. The objective of this study regards evaluating the efficiency of these countries in transforming productive resources and technological innovation into sustainable development. The proposed objective was achieved by using econometric tools as well as the data envelopment analysis method to then create economic, environmental, and social efficiency rankings for the BRICS countries, which enabled to carry out comparative analyses on the sustainable development of those countries. The results of such assessments can be of interest for more specific scientific explorations.

INVESTIMENTO EM RESPONSABILIDADE SÓCIO-AMBIENTAL DE EMPRESAS DISTRIBUIDORAS DE ENERGIA ELÉTRICA: UMA ANÁLISE POR ENVOLTÓRIA DE DADOS

Este trabalho visou discutir a importância dos investimentos em responsabilidade socio-ambiental para o desempenho financeiro corporativo de empresas distribuidoras de energia eletrica. Para atingir esse fim foi utilizada a ferramenta Analise por Envoltoria de Dados (DEA) para calcular a eficiencia de 12 empresas desse setor, nos anos de 2003 e 2004, sendo que um dos principais inputs utilizados, para o calculo da eficiencia, foi o investimento em responsabilidade socio-ambiental. Os resultados alcancados identificam forte correlacao entre faturamento corporativo e investimento em responsabilidade socioambiental.

Technological innovation for sustainable development: an analysis of different types of impacts for countries in the BRICS and G7 groups

Technological innovation is considered as being one of the major driving forces in fostering economic growth. However, in the current economic situation, where matters related to environmental protection and conservation play a key role, technological innovation can also be used as a driver of new production alternatives to reduce the harmful impacts of industrial development on society and nature. Within this context, this paper aims to analyze, through econometric tools, the relationship between investments in technological innovation and the sustainable development of G7 and BRICS countries. The results demonstrate that for the BRICS group, technological innovation has been significant for the three pillars of sustainable development. However, for the G7 group, technological innovation was considered significant only for social development, showing no statistical significance for economic and environmental development. The results indicate that technological innovation can cause different types of impacts, depending on the development stage of the analyzed country or region.

Bank efficiency in Brazil: the importance for economic sustainability

Studies on efficiency achieved greater relevance in organisations within an open market framework, which in Brazil began around 1990. The objective of this paper, applying the data envelopment analysis methodology, is to analyse the efficiency of banks operating in the country using the database termed ‘the biggest banks’, periodically divulged by the Central Bank of Brazil in 2010–2012. The methodology was applied to the 26 largest banking organisations via two approaches, one was financial intermediation and the other was results. In the financial intermediation approach, the efficiency increase was the highest among banks specialised in credit from 2010 to 2012. Retail banks, especially the large ones, felt most intensely the reaction of 2011, a year considered as the sector’s low performance year. In the results approach, the efficiency increase was higher among retail banks. Factors such as retractions in the SELIC rate and bank spreads impacted all banks, regardless of the segment.

Economic growth and the quality labour market of jobs created: a Brazilian case and some implications to Latin America

An outcome of economic growth is increased employment, but this should not be the only measure to assess a country’s labour market, it is also important to verify whether the jobs created are considered good jobs. Thus, this study analyses the Brazilian labour market from 2000 to 2009, in terms of the quantity and quality of jobs generated in this period. To this end, a descriptive analysis was performed, in addition to an evaluation using econometrics and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. The results of the research indicated that the Brazilian labour market is growing in terms of its quality.