Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1835278 bytes, checksum: 6e5db265a684951dd489f1f1afd780e4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-09-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present study aims to obtain empirical evidence of agglomeration economies on economic activities of municipalities in the years 2000 and 2009. To do so, it is employing two complementary techniques applied to data from RAIS. At first, through the Exploratory Analysis of Spatial Data, it appears that there is some kind of spatial association in the tested variables such as spatial agglomerations or homogeneous regions (clusters) and atypical observations (outliers). Evidence obtained point to high values of autocorrelation in the municipalities of South and Southeast area and low values in the North and Northeast. In the second part, devoted to estimation of the econometric model are used to formulate wage equations based on a microeconomic model developed by Fingleton (2003), under the precepts of Urban Economics, where the main hypothesis points to a positive relationship between wage differentials and labor productivity. The results from the technique of instrumental variables via 2SLS and GMM, suggest that variations in wage rates of the Brazilian municipalities are significantly and positively related to the spatial concentration of economic activity and the spillover efficiency levels between areas that are geographically close, corroborating to Jacobs theory about the economies of urbanization. / O presente estudo tem a finalidade de obter evidências empíricas de economias de aglomeração nas atividades econômicas dos municípios brasileiros nos anos de 2000 e 2009. Para tanto, emprega-se duas técnicas complementares aplicadas aos dados da RAIS. Na primeira, por meio da Análise Exploratória de Dados Espaciais, verifica-se a existência de algum tipo de associação espacial nas variáveis analisadas, tais como aglomerações espaciais ou regiões homogêneas (clusters) e observações atípicas (outliers). As evidências obtidas apontam para autocorrelação espacial de altos valores nos municípios das regiões Sul e Sudeste e de baixos valores no Norte e Nordeste. Na segunda parte, dedicada à estimação do modelo econométrico, são utilizadas equações salariais com formulação baseada em um modelo microeconômico desenvolvido por Fingleton (2003), sob os preceitos da Urban Economics, cuja principal hipótese aponta para uma relação positiva entre os diferenciais de salários e a produtividade do trabalho. Os resultados obtidos a partir da técnica de variáveis instrumentais via MQ2E e GMM, sugerem que as variações nas taxas salariais dos municípios brasileiro são significativamente e positivamente relacionadas com a concentração espacial da atividade econômica e com os transbordamentos dos níveis de eficiência entre áreas geograficamente próximas, corroborando as teorias de Jacobs acerca das economias de urbanização.

This thesis examines the measurement, applications and properties of consumer inflation expectations in the context of eight European Union countries: France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. The data proceed mainly from the European Commission's Consumer Survey and are qualitative in nature, therefore requiring quantification prior to use. This study first seeks to determine the optimal quantification methodology among a set of approaches spanning three traditions, associated with Carlson-Parkin (1975), Pesaran (1984) and Seitz (1988). The success of a quantification methodology is assessed on the basis of its ability to match quantitative expectations data and on its behaviour in an important economic application, namely the modelling of wages for our sample countries. The wage equation developed here draws on the theoretical background of the staggered contracts and the wage bargaining literature, and controls carefully for inflation expectations and institutional variables. The Carlson-Parkin variation proposed in Curto Millet (2004) was found to be the most satisfactory. This being established, the wage equations are used to test the hypothesis that the advent of EMU generated an increase in labour market flexibility, which would be reflected in structural breaks. The hypothesis is essentially rejected. Finally, the properties of inflation expectations and perceptions themselves are examined, especially in the context of EMU. Both the rational expectations and rational perceptions hypotheses are rejected. Popular expectations mechanisms, such as the "rule-of-thumb" model or Akerlof et al.'s (2000) "near-rationality hypothesis" are similarly unsupported. On the other hand, evidence is found for the transmission of expert forecasts to consumer expectations in the case of the UK, as in Carroll's (2003) model. The distribution of consumer expectations and perceptions is also considered, showing a tendency for gradual (as in Mankiw and Reis, 2002) but non-rational adjustment. Expectations formation is further shown to have important qualitative features.