Submitted by Tiago Carvalho Machado de Souza (tiagocmsouza@gmail.com) on 2017-09-11T00:06:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Souza - Dissertation.pdf: 996229 bytes, checksum: d66c6f04bc786ddb3ffcd12843e49226 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2017-09-12T13:25:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Souza - Dissertation.pdf: 996229 bytes, checksum: d66c6f04bc786ddb3ffcd12843e49226 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-26T12:10:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Souza - Dissertation.pdf: 996229 bytes, checksum: d66c6f04bc786ddb3ffcd12843e49226 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-16 / This dissertation is composed of two articles in applied economics. The first intends to develop a better understanding of how economies’ income distribution relates to pricing decisions of firms with market power. The goal is to identify variables that induce companies’ price changes looking to the demand side — instead of the more usual supply side explanations. It is an intuitive framework that allows bringing together otherwise con-flicting results of the empirical literature. The economy’s per-capita income, income share of buyers and companies’ market size (share of population that purchases their goods) are factors that determine their pricing behavior and help explaining patterns observed in reality. The second article is about countries’ decision to not repay their public debt. The focus, however, is on the relative scarcity of productive inputs that results from defaulting, and how easy it is to substitute among them. It is a different way of looking at the economic costs generated when governments miss to pay their debts. The environment built provides interesting results, as for example interest rate spreads that emerge by just changing inputs’ elasticity of substitution, without relying on differences in agents’ risk aversion. / Esta tese é composta por dois artigos em economia aplicada. O primeiro busca entender a maneira como a distribuição de renda de uma economia impacta a decisão de preços de firmas com poder de mercado. O objetivo é identificar, no lado da demanda, elementos que induzam mudanças na escolha de preços de empresas --- ao invés de explicações advindas do lado da oferta, mais usuais na literatura. É um arcabouço intuitivo e que permite conciliar resultados inicialmente conflitantes na literatura empírica que trata do mesmo assunto. A renda per-capita da economia, concetranção de renda dos compradores de um bem e o tamanho do mercado das empresas (fração da população que compra um bem) são fatores determinantes do preço e ajudam a explicar padrões observados no mundo real. O segundo artigo trata da decisão de default de países na gestão da sua dívida píblica. O foco, contudo, é na escassez de recursos produtivos em consequência do default e a facilidade com que se pode substituir esses insumos por outros. É uma proposta diferente de olhar para os custos economicos induzidos pelo não pagamento da dívida pública. O ambiente desenvolvido gera resultados interessantes, como spreads de juros apenas alterando a elasticidade de substituição dos insumos, sem recorrer a mudanças na aversão a risco dos agentes.

A partir da década de 90 um novo modelo de concepção do papel do Estado e de suas funções na economia dominou o Estado brasileiro. Esse novo paradigma, conhecido como neoliberalismo, prometia dar fim a crise pela qual o país passava, ou melhor, o fim do processo de inflacionário, o retorno a estabilidade econômica e a retomada do crescimento. O receituário dessa política foi adotado pelo governo brasileiro, entretanto, mais de uma década se passou e além de não ter gerado o resultado prometido, transformou o orçamento público num mecanismo de transferência de renda das classes de renda mais baixas para as mais altas. Nesse sentido que este trabalho analisa a política orçamentária no Brasil no período de 1995-2005. O ponto central está em seu efeito distributivo a partir da análise quantitativa e qualitativa da elevação da carga tributária nacional e do gasto público. Essa leitura é feita a partir da análise do papel do Estado na economia, e a importância das mudanças desse paradigma e seu reflexo na acumulação do capital nos últimos 30 anos. / Since the nineties, a new model of the conception and of the economic functions of the state dominates Brazil’s State. This new paradigm, known as neoliberalism, promised to put an end to the crisis that the country suffered, or better, to put an end to the inflation process, to return to economic stability and to regenerate growth. The recipe of that policy was adopted by the Brazilian government, nevertheless, over a decade has passed and not only the promised outcomes have not been obtained, but they turned the fiscal budget into income transfer mechanism form the lower to the higher income classes. In that sense this dissertation analyzes the budget policy in Brazil during 1995-2005. The main point is the distributive effect following the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the raise in the country’s tax burden and in public expenses. This is done beginning from the analysis of the state’s role in the economy, the importance of the changes of that paradigm and its reflex on capital accumulation in the last thirty years.

The scope of this work is analysing how economic policies chosen by governments are influenced by the power of social groups. The core idea is taken from the single-mindedness theory, which states that preferences of groups and their ability to focus on the consumption of goods enable them to obtain the most favourable policies. This approach exploits the advantages of probabilistic voting theory, ability to manage the multidiemnsionality and possibility to study precisely how politicians tailor their policies to groups' features. Unlike classic probabilistic voting models, my theory assumes that the density function which captures the distribution of political preferences depends on consumption of goods and preferences of individuals. The higher the consumption of goods, the higher the density, the higher the political power. This mechanism is better explained by considering the role played by "swing voters". Since they are pivotal to changing the equilibrium, candidates must favour them because they realise that even a small change in policy could force them to vote for the other candidate, Thus, the lower the loyalty of voters for parties, the higher the benefit they obtain. As a consequence, these voters are better off and represent the winners of the political process.

A partir da década de 90 um novo modelo de concepção do papel do Estado e de suas funções na economia dominou o Estado brasileiro. Esse novo paradigma, conhecido como neoliberalismo, prometia dar fim a crise pela qual o país passava, ou melhor, o fim do processo de inflacionário, o retorno a estabilidade econômica e a retomada do crescimento. O receituário dessa política foi adotado pelo governo brasileiro, entretanto, mais de uma década se passou e além de não ter gerado o resultado prometido, transformou o orçamento público num mecanismo de transferência de renda das classes de renda mais baixas para as mais altas. Nesse sentido que este trabalho analisa a política orçamentária no Brasil no período de 1995-2005. O ponto central está em seu efeito distributivo a partir da análise quantitativa e qualitativa da elevação da carga tributária nacional e do gasto público. Essa leitura é feita a partir da análise do papel do Estado na economia, e a importância das mudanças desse paradigma e seu reflexo na acumulação do capital nos últimos 30 anos. / Since the nineties, a new model of the conception and of the economic functions of the state dominates Brazil’s State. This new paradigm, known as neoliberalism, promised to put an end to the crisis that the country suffered, or better, to put an end to the inflation process, to return to economic stability and to regenerate growth. The recipe of that policy was adopted by the Brazilian government, nevertheless, over a decade has passed and not only the promised outcomes have not been obtained, but they turned the fiscal budget into income transfer mechanism form the lower to the higher income classes. In that sense this dissertation analyzes the budget policy in Brazil during 1995-2005. The main point is the distributive effect following the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the raise in the country’s tax burden and in public expenses. This is done beginning from the analysis of the state’s role in the economy, the importance of the changes of that paradigm and its reflex on capital accumulation in the last thirty years.

The Bolsa Família Program is a Brazilian cash transfer , created in 2003 , which proposes , in one of his axes to fight poverty , the joint benefit with the development of additional programs , with a view to enhance and / or develop new skills of beneficiary families , providing income generation in order to promote their financial independence and consequentely the output of the program . This study aims to perform an analysis of the operation of the Bolsa Família Program Complementary , focusing on income generation , the Reference Centres for Social Assistance ( CRAS ) Aracaju - SE . In this sense , we tried to identify complementary programs for income generation CRAS developed in this city ; verify the role of CRAS in complementary programs for income generation ; identify to what extent these programs take into account the demands and potential beneficiary families ; and assess how they have contributed to the promotion of financial independence and possible decoupling of Bolsa Família beneficiaries . The research was exploratory , qualitative approach was guided by the historical - dialectical materialist method. The study population included all CRAS capital of Sergipe , totaling 15 , of which 5 comprised the study sample whose selection criterion was based on the premise of being located in the largest coverage areas in the municipality . Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews with two coordinators of SEMFAS and five of CRAS , after the signing of a |Statement of Consent|. As a result of the study was identified that although there are other complementary programs in development , only one of them can be considered Income Generation , the National Program for Access to Technical Education and Employment (PRONATEC/ BSM). The survey results indicated that its operation has many weaknesses, which fits list the main ones: BFP beneficiaries have priority access ; the reality and the potential of these are not taken into account in planning actions ; the role of CRAS is limited to the dissemination , mobilization and registration of the audience in the program ; and operationalization , in general, is far from the reach of impressive results , especially in promoting financial independence and decoupling of BFP beneficiaries , from access to income . This finding reinforces the residual character of Income Transfer Programs in Brazil , as well as its model of social protection , driven mainly by neoliberal ideas , which have led the state to implement compensatory , focused and limited range of policies, expense of capital accumulation. / O Programa Bolsa Família é um Programa de Transferência de Renda brasileiro, criado em 2003, que propõe, em um de seus eixos de combate à pobreza, a articulação do benefício com o desenvolvimento de programas complementares, tendo em vista potencializar e/ou desenvolver novas habilidades das famílias beneficiárias, propiciando a geração de renda, de forma a promover a sua independência financeira e, consequentemente, a saída do Programa. Este estudo teve como objetivo realizar uma análise da operacionalização dos Programas Complementares do Bolsa Família, com foco na Geração de Renda, nos Centros de Referência da Assistência Social (CRAS) de Aracaju-SE. Neste sentido, procurou-se identificar os programas complementares de geração de renda desenvolvidos nos CRAS deste município; verificar o papel desempenhado pelos CRAS nos programas complementares de geração de renda; identificar em que medida tais programas levam em consideração as demandas e potencialidades das famílias beneficiárias; e avaliar como têm contribuído para a promoção da independência financeira e possível desvinculação dos beneficiários do Bolsa Família. A pesquisa teve caráter exploratório, abordagem qualitativa e se orientou pelo método materialista histórico-dialético. O universo do estudo contemplou todos os CRAS da capital sergipana, que totalizam 15, dos quais 5 compuseram a amostra estudada, cujo critério de escolha se pautou na premissa de serem localizados nas maiores áreas de abrangência do município. A coleta de dados foi realizada por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas com duas coordenadoras da SEMFAS e cinco dos CRAS, após a assinatura de Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido . Como resultado do estudo foi identificado que apesar de existirem outros programas complementares em desenvolvimento, apenas um deles pode ser considerado de Geração de Renda, o Programa Nacional de Acesso ao Ensino Técnico e Emprego (PRONATEC/BSM). Os resultados da pesquisa indicaram, que a sua operacionalização apresenta muitas fragilidades, das quais cabe elencar as principais: os beneficiários do PBF não têm prioridade no acesso; a realidade e as potencialidades destes não são levadas em consideração no planejamento das ações; o papel dos CRAS se restringe à divulgação, mobilização e inscrição do público alvo no Programa; e a operacionalização, de modo geral, se distancia do alcance de resultados expressivos, sobretudo no sentido de promover a independência financeira e desvinculação dos beneficiários do PBF, a partir do acesso à renda. Tal constatação reforça o caráter residual dos Programas de Transferência de Renda no Brasil, bem como de seu modelo de proteção social, orientado, principalmente, pelas ideias neoliberais, as quais têm conduzido o Estado a implementar políticas compensatórias, focalizadas e de alcance limitado, em detrimento da acumulação do capital.

Various studies conclude that accelerated economic growth and development are necessary in South Africa to make a significant contribution towards reducing high levels of unemployment, inequality and poverty. Moreover, in theories of economic growth the export sector is frequently accorded a special role in encouraging faster economic growth, which is often supported by empirical evidence. Nonetheless, a question that remains unresolved is whether higher export growth leads to higher economic growth in South Africa and what particular role exports may play within the overall economic growth process of the country. This study applies Johansen’s cointegration procedure, impulse response functions, variance decomposition analysis and Granger causality tests to shed light on the channels through which export growth may impact South Africa’s economic growth rate. Quarterly time series data ranging from 1975q1 to 2012q4 is employed in the study’s empirical tests. The empirical results lend support to the idea that the role of exports in the economic growth process fundamentally lies in their ability to encourage investment and capital formation. While export growth supports higher economic growth in the short-run, it does not have the same effect in the long-run. Nonetheless, with export growth supporting faster capital formation in South Africa, and capital formation, in turn, significantly increasing economic growth in the long-run, the impetus to growth stemming from exports has been found to lie in the channel to capital formation. On the basis of the empirical results, not only are exports a critical requirement of higher investment, but they are also anticipated to play a prominent role in lifting the balance of payments constraint that would make investment-led growth possible in the first place. Overall, a strategy of export-led growth that does not explicitly emphasise the export-capital-growth connection is likely to fall short of reflecting the dynamics contained within the exports-growth relationship in South Africa.

The purpose of the master thesis is to compare the tax burden of employees in the Czech Republic and in the United States of America according to the legislation in 2016. The theoretical part is devoted to the description of tax systems, focusing on the taxation of income from employment. In the part United States I briefly mention the development of the tax system. The practical part consists of two chapters. The first one is focused on the calculation of the effective tax rate for taxpayers from selected types of households. The second one deals with global progressivity of the income tax. Equal income distribution in society is analyzed using the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient. The calculations indicate progressive tax effects both in the Czech Republic and in the United States with higher rate of tax progression and also higher inequality of income distribution in the United States. In the issue of effective rates of income tax is evident higher tax burden in the United States. Differences of total effective rates are decreasing between both countries.

This thesis explores the relationship between differing interpretation of the California Dream and the narrative strategies through while [sic] they are expressed in three California labor novels during three different decades of California literature.

This research analyses the statistical relationship between income distribution and seven taxation and government expenditure components in Namibia using data from 1996-2016. The research is aimed at creating new knowledge on the research topic because no literature exists for Namibia. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration technique was employed to assess the long-run relationship between the dependent and independent variables in Eviews. The research findings indicated that there is no long-run relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. In the short-run, the research findings indicate that government expenditure on social pensions and government expenditure on education have a balancing effect on income distribution, while tax on products, corporate income tax and customs and excise duties have an unbalancing and/or worsening effect on income distribution. Based on these findings, tertiary education loans are recommended as opposed to grants to ensure sustainability of Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NASFAF). In adjusting corporate and value added taxes, the government is cautioned to avoid overburdening consumers and employees through tax shifting in the form of high prices of goods and services and low wages and benefits. A tax mix, tax discrimination and a hybrid of taxation and government expenditure components are strongly recommended to achieve a balance. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Les trois essais composant cette thèse apportent des contributions à la littérature sur les conséquences de la migration et des transferts privés sur le développement économique des pays d'origine d'Afrique Subsaharienne.Le premier essai évalue l'impact distributif des transferts internationaux et domestiques au Sénégal. Les résultats montrent que les transferts privés réduisent l'inégalité de revenu au Sénégal. Cet effet égalisateur semble principalement tiré par les transferts domestiques. Le deuxième essai examine la fonction d'assurance de la migration au Mali. Nous trouvons que la migration agit comme un mécanisme d'assurance lorsque le ménage est victime d'un choc idiosyncratique au cours de l'année. Le troisième essai étudie le lien entre le capital humain des migrants sénégalais et leur insertion sur le marché de travail de destination. Les résultats suggèrent que la probabilité d'être en emploi qualifié étant donné le niveau d'éducation est inférieure en migration par rapport au Sénégal.Bien qu'à priori distincts, ces trois essais ont en commun une approche qui mobilise des enquêtes ménages ainsi que des techniques micro-économétriques diverses au regard du caractère complexe de la migration afin d'apporter des éclairages sur les conséquences de la migration sur les économies d'origine. / The three essays composing this thesis make contributions to the literature on the consequences of migration and private transfers on the economic development of the countries of origin of sub-Saharan Africa.The first essay evaluates the distributive impact of international and domestic transfersin Senegal. The results show that private transfers reduce income inequality in Senegal. This equalizing effect is mainly driven bydomestic transfers. The second essay examines the insurance function of migration in Mali. We find that migration acts as an insurance mechanism when the household suffers an idiosyncratic shock during the year. The third essay examines the link between the human capital of Senegalese migrants and their integration into the destination labor market. The results suggest that the probability of being in skilled employment given the level of education is lower in migration compared to Senegal. Although a priori distinct, the three essays have in common an approach that mobilizes household surveys and various microeconometric techniques to deal with the complexity of migration in order to improve the understanding of the consequences of migration on the economies of origines