O mercado automotivo global em 2008 sofreu uma queda drástica na produção e nas vendas após a eclosão da crise do subprime nos Estados Unidos. Em todo o mundo, políticas de fomento foram sendo implementadas sob as mais variadas formas para recuperar o setor. Presumivelmente, em resposta à crise, o governo brasileiro resolveu agir decretando a política anticíclica de redução do IPI ao mercado automobilístico em 2008, sendo está repetida em 2012. Neste mesmo ano também ocorreu a modificação do acordo automotivo Brasil/México, e em 2013 foi implantado o INOVAR-AUTO. Sendo assim, o objetivo do presente estudo, será avaliar o efeito da diminuição do IPI sobre o comportamento da demanda, da oferta e os efeitos líquidos sobre os agentes de mercado. O estudo se relaciona com uma literatura que busca avaliar os efeitos de reformas tributárias em indústrias com produtos diferenciados, como Fershtman, Gandal e Markovich (1999) e Verboven (2002). É empregado o modelo logit aninhado de McFadden et al. (1973) e estendido por Berry (1994), combinado com uma estrutura de competição oligopolista pressupondo equilíbrio nos preços, segundo Nevo (1998), do tipo Nash-Bertrand. Adicionalmente, é elaborado uma análise econométrica preliminar de preços hedônicos, seguindo Griliches (1961), formulado num painel de efeitos fixos que avaliará o comportamento dos preços médios dos veículos novos nos períodos de modificação do IPI. Os resultados dos modelos de apreçamento hedônico demonstram que as montadoras não remanejaram os preços médios no mesmo percentual efetivo da queda do IPI. As variações dos preços foram mais baixas do que a da alíquota. Na metodologia discreta, os resultados apontam que empresas que detém maiores poderes de mercado possuem elasticidades preço próprias baixas. Lucros mais elevados estão associados a marcas que no grosso de suas vendas comercializam automóveis de menor porte que embutem uma alta relação markup preço-custo. Montadoras nacionais tiveram melhor desempenho que suas contrapartes importadoras. A carga tributária altíssima é o principal vilão para o desempenho ruim dos importados. Os excedentes gerados com a modificação do IPI foram positivos para todos os agentes. Consumidores, produtores e governo ganharam com a medida. Ou seja, há espaço para reduções de impostos com aumento da arrecadação do governo. / The global automotive market in 2008 saw a sharp drop in production and sales following the outbreak of the subprime crisis in the United States. Throughout the world, development policies have been implemented in a variety of ways to recover the sector. Presumably, in response to the crisis, the Brazilian government decided to act by decreeing the anti-cyclical policy of reducing the IPI to the automobile market in 2008, and is repeated in 2012. In 2012 also occurred the modification of the automotive agreement Brazil / Mexico, and in 2013 was implanted the INOVAR-AUTO. Therefore, the objective of the present study will be to evaluate the effect of the reduction of IPI on the behavior of demand, supply and net effects on market agents. The study is related to a literature that seeks to evaluate the effects of tax reforms in industries with differentiated products, such as Fershtman, Gandal e Markovich (1999) and Verboven (2002). The nested logit model of McFadden et al. (1973) and extended by Berry (1994), combined with an oligopolistic competition structure presupposing price equilibrium, according to Nevo (1998), of the Nash-Bertrand type, is used. Additionally, a preliminary econometric analysis of hedonic prices is elaborated, following Griliches (1961), formulated in a panel of fixed effects that will evaluate the behavior of the average prices of new vehicles in the periods of modification of the IPI. The results of the hedonic pricing models show that the automakers did not change average prices in the same effective percentage of the IPI fall. Price changes were lower than the rate. In the discrete methodology, the results indicate that companies that have greater market power have lower price elasticities. Higher profits are associated with brands that in the bulk of their sales market smaller automobiles that embody a high price-cost markup ratio. National car manufacturers performed better than their importing counterparts. The very high tax burden is the main villain for the poor performance of imported. The surpluses generated with the IPI change were positive for all agents. Consumers, producers and government won with the measure. That is, there is room for tax cuts with increased government revenue.

O mercado automotivo global em 2008 sofreu uma queda drástica na produção e nas vendas após a eclosão da crise do subprime nos Estados Unidos. Em todo o mundo, políticas de fomento foram sendo implementadas sob as mais variadas formas para recuperar o setor. Presumivelmente, em resposta à crise, o governo brasileiro resolveu agir decretando a política anticíclica de redução do IPI ao mercado automobilístico em 2008, sendo está repetida em 2012. Neste mesmo ano também ocorreu a modificação do acordo automotivo Brasil/México, e em 2013 foi implantado o INOVAR-AUTO. Sendo assim, o objetivo do presente estudo, será avaliar o efeito da diminuição do IPI sobre o comportamento da demanda, da oferta e os efeitos líquidos sobre os agentes de mercado. O estudo se relaciona com uma literatura que busca avaliar os efeitos de reformas tributárias em indústrias com produtos diferenciados, como Fershtman, Gandal e Markovich (1999) e Verboven (2002). É empregado o modelo logit aninhado de McFadden et al. (1973) e estendido por Berry (1994), combinado com uma estrutura de competição oligopolista pressupondo equilíbrio nos preços, segundo Nevo (1998), do tipo Nash-Bertrand. Adicionalmente, é elaborado uma análise econométrica preliminar de preços hedônicos, seguindo Griliches (1961), formulado num painel de efeitos fixos que avaliará o comportamento dos preços médios dos veículos novos nos períodos de modificação do IPI. Os resultados dos modelos de apreçamento hedônico demonstram que as montadoras não remanejaram os preços médios no mesmo percentual efetivo da queda do IPI. As variações dos preços foram mais baixas do que a da alíquota. Na metodologia discreta, os resultados apontam que empresas que detém maiores poderes de mercado possuem elasticidades preço próprias baixas. Lucros mais elevados estão associados a marcas que no grosso de suas vendas comercializam automóveis de menor porte que embutem uma alta relação markup preço-custo. Montadoras nacionais tiveram melhor desempenho que suas contrapartes importadoras. A carga tributária altíssima é o principal vilão para o desempenho ruim dos importados. Os excedentes gerados com a modificação do IPI foram positivos para todos os agentes. Consumidores, produtores e governo ganharam com a medida. Ou seja, há espaço para reduções de impostos com aumento da arrecadação do governo. / The global automotive market in 2008 saw a sharp drop in production and sales following the outbreak of the subprime crisis in the United States. Throughout the world, development policies have been implemented in a variety of ways to recover the sector. Presumably, in response to the crisis, the Brazilian government decided to act by decreeing the anti-cyclical policy of reducing the IPI to the automobile market in 2008, and is repeated in 2012. In 2012 also occurred the modification of the automotive agreement Brazil / Mexico, and in 2013 was implanted the INOVAR-AUTO. Therefore, the objective of the present study will be to evaluate the effect of the reduction of IPI on the behavior of demand, supply and net effects on market agents. The study is related to a literature that seeks to evaluate the effects of tax reforms in industries with differentiated products, such as Fershtman, Gandal e Markovich (1999) and Verboven (2002). The nested logit model of McFadden et al. (1973) and extended by Berry (1994), combined with an oligopolistic competition structure presupposing price equilibrium, according to Nevo (1998), of the Nash-Bertrand type, is used. Additionally, a preliminary econometric analysis of hedonic prices is elaborated, following Griliches (1961), formulated in a panel of fixed effects that will evaluate the behavior of the average prices of new vehicles in the periods of modification of the IPI. The results of the hedonic pricing models show that the automakers did not change average prices in the same effective percentage of the IPI fall. Price changes were lower than the rate. In the discrete methodology, the results indicate that companies that have greater market power have lower price elasticities. Higher profits are associated with brands that in the bulk of their sales market smaller automobiles that embody a high price-cost markup ratio. National car manufacturers performed better than their importing counterparts. The very high tax burden is the main villain for the poor performance of imported. The surpluses generated with the IPI change were positive for all agents. Consumers, producers and government won with the measure. That is, there is room for tax cuts with increased government revenue.

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies that address questions regarding state welfare policy making in the post-welfare reform era. The first empirical study pays close attention to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as a federal block grant program, which is a big departure from most previous TANF studies, to ask why American states differ in their decisions to allocate federal block grants across specific programs. Drawing on research on fiscal federalism and state and cross-national welfare politics, the study uses cross-sectional time-series data covering 50 states over the fiscal years 2004-2016 to examine factors that have an impact on state child care spending under the TANF block grant. The results show that several political factors and one socio-economic factor impact states’ TANF child care spending in the hypothesized direction. Most importantly, the study finds that a specific state government’s TANF policy designed to encourage work matters in an interesting way. States’ emphasis on work of TANF recipients, measured by the existence of the TANF job-search rule, exerts a positive, independent effect on the percentage of state TANF child care spending, but the positive marginal effect of implementing the job-search rule becomes negative as the percentage of female state legislators passes 28%. The study shed lights on our general understanding of the factors that influence state allocations of federal block grants for an understudied but increasingly important policy program in the American states—child care. The second empirical study examines whether the selection of indicators of welfare policy commitment makes any difference for the findings in studies of the determinants of state welfare policy. If so, what difference does it make? While scholars of state welfare politics have long been making efforts to find better explanations for variation in welfare policy across American states, the literature as a whole has paid little attention to how differently scholars operationalize state welfare policy even though they examine a variety of welfare policy measures. To address these questions, I estimate a series of different panel data models with different measures of state welfare commitment for the period after the welfare reform of 1996. Comparing the results across these models shows that the choice of dependent variable measures affects the estimation results, thereby suggesting that empirical findings are dependent upon the measure we use. This finding not only shows that scholars need to be cautious in interpreting their results but also opens up a new puzzle as to why a factor affects a particular welfare measure but not others. The last empirical study addresses the question: do the effects of party politics differ across welfare policies? In answering this question, the study draws on the literature on deservingness and social construction of target populations and hypothesizes that party politics would play a differential role in explaining the generosity of different welfare policies depending on the perceived deservingness of target populations. To test this hypothesis, I estimate three models each for TANF, Supplemental Security Income-State Supplements (SSI-S), and Medicaid generosity covering the period after the welfare reform. I find that party politics still remains as an important predictor of state welfare generosity, especially where welfare policy for the deserving poor and mixed population in terms of its deservingness is concerned. Also, there are differential effects of party politics across the welfare policies examined, but sometimes in an unexpected direction. This study provides a valuable addition to the literature in that it updates and enriches our understanding of welfare politics.