The Granger causality test was used to explore the price interdependence in the wholesale tomato markets of Fortaleza, Teresina and Sao Luis in the Northeast of Brazil. Following the results of this study, the conclusion is reached that, in general terms, the prices in these markets are established efficiently implying a competitive environment in the Northeast tomato markets. Fortaleza operates as a leading market "driving" the prices of the Teresina and Sao Luis secondary markets.

Using crops for fuel generates concerns over competition with food uses. As Rajagopal et al (2009) asserts, “In 2008 the world entered a food crisis amid record-high commodity and energy prices that induced hunger and political unrest in developing countries, by export restrictions in top grain-producing countries”. This took place at the same time when biofuel production, reached its pinnacle in developed countries. This paper examines the effect that biofuel prices and or production has had on food prices in Brazil and U.S. by employing the panel cointegration and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) method of analysis. In regressing food prices as a function of demand and supply factors, such as oil prices, biofuel prices, interest rates and biofuel production, the study found that the increase in biofuels production over the past eighteen years has had a significant impact on food prices. Over the period January 1995- December 2013, the study estimates that a one hundred percent increase in biofuels production across time and between countries results in the increase of food prices by 21,9%. The study therefore rejects the null hypothesis that states, biofuel production does not have a statistically significant negative impact on food prices in U.S. and Brazil. , and accepts the alternative that biofuel production does have a statistically significant negative impact on food prices in U.S. and Brazil. Other predictors of food prices that the study revealed as significant were oil and interest rates. Policy recommendations for other countries like South Africa are therefore, made based on the results obtained.

Orientador: Ricardo de Medeiros Carneiro / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T09:37:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hussne_RodrigoDelgallo_M.pdf: 866165 bytes, checksum: dc6bf706e212c77e275adccf566a28d3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O presente trabalho pretende avaliar o funcionamento do regime de metas de inflação na economia brasileira. Verifica-se que a busca pelo alcance das metas pré-estabelecidas para o aumento de preços implicou custos substanciais em termos de crescimento do produto interno da economia. Apresentam-se os fundamentos teóricos nos quais se baseia a proposição deste sistema de política monetária, atentando para a maior complexidade da condução do regime de metas de inflação em economias emergentes. Por fim, são descritas as peculiaridades da economia brasileira que, em conjunto com o conservadorismo do Banco Central na condução da política monetária, tornam elevado o custo de atendimento das metas de inflação em nosso país / Abstract: This work intends to assess inflation-targeting framework performance in the Brazilian economy. It finds that the Central Bank?s single objective to reach the inflation targets leaded the country to face substantial costs in terms of output and employment growth. This work presents the theoretical fundamentals that support this type of monetary policy framework, attempting for the higher degree of complexity regarding the operation of inflation-targeting in emergent market economies. Finally, it describes some particular characteristics of the Brazilian economy that, in set with the Central Bank orthodoxy in the operation of monetary policy, increased the costs of reaching inflation targets in our country / Mestrado / Politica Economica / Mestre em Ciências Econômicas