In this session, Dan Scott (the contributor of the schema.org microdata enhancement for Evergreen and a participant in the schemabibex effort to extend schema.org to better support bibliographic data) will discuss the origins of the microdata standards, explain how nominally machine-readable cataloguing data can fit into the machine-actionable semantic web, reflect on the impact that a microdata-enabled catalogue has had at Laurentian University to date, and offer some thoughts about the future of microdata – including the schema.org and RDFa Lite standards. / WARNING: you may come away with ideas not only for enriching your library system, but for your web site and other web-based library applications as well! Microdata enables search engines and other automated processes to make sense of the data on a web page — like identifying the title, author, and identification number of a book from all of the other content on a given page. Web pages enhanced with microdata contribute to the semantic web, and in turn are more likely to be incorporated into search engines and advanced web applications. If it sounds like we should publish microdata from Evergreen’s catalogue, you will be pleased to know that Evergreen was (naturally) the first library system to incorporate microdata in its default public catalogue with the 2.2.0 release in June 2012.

Debt and credit markets played a crucial role in recent economic history. This thesis is composed of three chapters, each of which explores some drivers of private and public debt accumulation throughout the past decade. The first two chapters are directly linked, and study some behavioural determinants of household debt accumulation in the United States in the run-up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The third chapter takes a different perspective, and focuses on the political economy of fiscal reforms. In the first chapter, I study whether the growth in US household debt ahead of the 2007-2008 financial crisis can be attributed to shifts in the distribution of personal income across the US population. The underlying theoretical mechanism is based on the idea that if individuals are concerned with status, rising income inequality within a given social group might lead its relatively poorer members to consume a larger proportion of their resources, due to a desire to emulate the consumption levels of richer individuals (Duesenberry [1949]; Frank, Levine and Dijk [2014]; Bertrand and Morse [2016]). I test this hypothesis by exploiting state-level variation in top incomes over time, following the methodology proposed by Bertrand and Morse [2016]. The results I present in this chapter challenge the status-emulation theory of consumer behaviour during the 2000s credit boom. I show that, between 1996 and 2007, only low and-middle-income home-owners increased their expenditure and debt-to-income ratios as a response to an increase in income inequality in their state of residence. I also show that the growth in income inequality was strongly correlated with house prices growth, across US states and metropolitan areas. The positive correlation between inequality and household debt in the pre-crisis US might therefore be simply explained by the wealth and collateral effects experienced by low and middle-income home-owners living in areas where inequality was growing at the fastest rates. The lifting of credit constraints due to rising house prices have been a major driver of household debt accumulation ahead of the 2007-2008 financial crisis (Mian and Sufi [2011]). However, this effect might have been coupled with a generalized optimistic belief that the growth in house prices was likely to continue in the future (Case, Shiller and Thompson [2012]). The second chapter therefore tests whether consumers hold realistic expectations about the housing market, and whether this is a driver of their consumption and saving decisions. Using the Michigan Survey of Consumers, I show that American households have heterogeneous expectations about the future of house prices, which systematically depend upon household characteristics, as well as upon the history of past house price realizations in the local area of residence. I also analyze individual-level forecast errors to show that house price expectations are biased and inefficient. Changes in individual forecast errors are predictable from past house price realizations in the local area of residence: in particular, forecast errors are positively correlated with recent price trends, and tend to become overoptimistic in good times, and over-pessimistic in bad ones. The predictability of forecast errors from public information available at the time the forecast was made suggests a violation of full-information rational expectations theory. This systematic bias in house price expectations matters because consumers make financial decisions on the basis of their house price beliefs. By exploiting an exogenous shift in housing sentiment, I show that when individuals expect the value of their properties to rise, they borrow against the anticipated increase in home equity. The third and final chapter shifts the focus to the political drivers of public debt and deficits. Public debt crises often call for the intervention of international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In this chapter, I introduce a new panel dataset on planned fiscal policy prescriptions included in all IMF loans between 2002 and 2012, and use it to study how domestic politics of recipient countries influence the content of IMF lending agreements. I show that IMF policy prescriptions depend strongly on domestic politics and that fiscal conditions are shaped by a political force often neglected in public choice literature: the threat of extra-parliamentary opposition, or civil unrest. Extra-parliamentary opposition (measured as a populations’ propensity to riot and demonstrate) significantly reduces the stringency of fiscal policy conditions attached to IMF loans. It also reduces the number of reforms in the realms of public employment and labor markets. These results suggest that fiscal policy has a strong political component even during circumstances when domestic politics are commonly assumed to cease to matter, as they do in IMF agreements. Also, they suggest that voting is not the only mechanism through which politics enters the technical realm of economic policy.

Charles University Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Economic Studies MASTER'S THESIS The Elasticity of Demand for Gasoline: Evidence from the Czech Republic Author: Bc. Radoslav Lacko Supervisor: Mgr. Petr Polák MSc. Academic Year: 2018/2019 Abstract Studying the price responsiveness of the fuel demand is popular topic among researchers. The price elasticity is used for predicting future tax revenues, or fuel consumption under various situations. This thesis focuses on elasticity estimation for the Czech Republic using high frequency evidence. We use the process of data mining to get the Czech evidence. Observed elasticity differs by the data aggregation level. Estimated long-run elasticity range between −0.38 and −0.68 for gasoline users and between −0.43 and −0.54 for diesel users. Much lower elasticity was estimated in the short-run that confirms economic theory. JEL Classification C51, C55, L71, Q43 Keywords elasticity, fuel, Czech Republic, microdata Author's e-mail rl.lacko@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail polakpet@gmail.com

O setor agropecuário brasileiro apresentou nas últimas décadas elevadas taxas de crescimento da produtividade total dos fatores (PTF). Conforme dados da Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB, 2016), as culturas de milho e soja situam-se entre as principais cadeias produtivas da agropecuária brasileira, caracterizando o Brasil como um dos principais produtores mundiais dessas culturas. Entretanto, as produtividades médias das culturas de milho e soja observadas em diversas regiões do território nacional apresentam-se aquém daquelas observadas em outros países produtores, indicando que ganhos de eficiência produtiva ainda são possíveis. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho, utilizando a metodologia de fronteira estocástica apresentada por Kumbhakar, Wang e Horncastle (2015), estimou a eficiência técnica dos produtores de milho e soja no Brasil incluindo na análise variáveis institucionais e agronômicas. Foram realizadas duas análises da eficiência técnica, uma considerando apenas os produtores do estado de São Paulo, a partir dos microdados do Levantamento Censitário das Unidades de Produção Agropecuária (LUPA), realizado pelo Instituto de Economia Agrícola no ano safra 2007/2008, e a segunda análise examinando a eficiência técnica em todo o país, utilizando os microdados do Censo Agropecuário 2006 do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE. Os principais resultados estimados revelaram que os produtores de milho são, na média, tecnicamente menos eficientes que os produtores de soja. Foi observado, também, a importância de técnicas modernas de manejo, como plantio direto, colheita mecanizada e manejo integrado de pragas, e do nível de instrução do produtor como determinantes da eficiência na produção de ambas as culturas no país. / In the last decades, the Brazilian agricultural sector presented high rates of growth of total factor productivity (TFP). According to data from the National Supply Company (CONAB, 2016), corn and soybean crops are among the main productive chains of Brazilian agriculture, characterizing Brazil as one of the main producers of these crops worldwide. However, the average yields of corn and soybean crops observed in several regions of the national territory are lower than those obtained in the other producing countries, indicating that gains in productive efficiency are still possible. In this sense, the present work, using the stochastic frontier methodology presented by Kumbhakar, Wang and Horncastle (2015), analyzed the technical efficiency of corn and soybean producers in Brazi, including in the analysis institutional and agronomic variables . Two analyzes of the technical efficiency were carried out, the first one considering only the producers within the state of São Paulo, based on the microdata of the Censitary Survey of Agricultural Production Units (LUPA), conducted by the Institute of Agricultural Economics in the 2007/2008 crop year, and the second was an analysis to estimate the technical efficiency throughout the country, using the microdata of the Agricultural Census 2006 of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE. The main estimated results showed that corn producers are, on average, technically less efficient than soybean producers. It was also observed the importance of modern management techniques such as tillage, mechanized harvesting and integrated pest management, and the producer level of education for the agricultural efficiency gains in the country.

Submitted by GUILHERME AMELIO MILIAN null (guilhermeamilian@gmail.com) on 2017-03-03T20:00:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Guilherme_Amelio_Milian_2017.pdf: 2905879 bytes, checksum: 32f42c9bc8ac0fe5276cf8a93e4f562a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-03-09T17:27:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 milian_ga_me_arafcl.pdf: 2905879 bytes, checksum: 32f42c9bc8ac0fe5276cf8a93e4f562a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-09T17:27:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 milian_ga_me_arafcl.pdf: 2905879 bytes, checksum: 32f42c9bc8ac0fe5276cf8a93e4f562a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-23 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Desde o findar da década de 1990, a OIT vem fazendo esforços para promover a geração de trabalho decente. Valendo-se de objetivos como promover e cumprir com as normas, princípios e direitos fundamentais no trabalho, criar oportunidades dignas para homens e mulheres, ampliar a proteção social de modo eficaz e fortalecer o tripartismo e o diálogo social. No espectro da expansão de postos de trabalho formal no Brasil nos últimos anos – 10,3 milhões entre 2005 e 2015, segundo dados do CAGED – nada se revela sobre quais condições os trabalhadores se encontram nas atividades econômicas que desempenham. Sobretudo em regiões metropolitanas, onde há pujante geração de riqueza produtiva. Ademais, fora da “nata” do emprego formal, encontram-se trabalhadores em situação precária, o que reforça a necessidade de um indicativo dos ares que envolvem o emprego digno. Dessa maneira, o objetivo geral desta dissertação é verificar a qualidade do trabalho entre as regiões metropolitanas. O termo qualidade está circunscrito ao conceito de trabalho decente da OIT, que apesar de ser amplo, apresenta eixos e dimensões capazes de incluir aspectos de um emprego digno. Este trabalho contempla o desenvolvimento de um índice-síntese de trabalho decente, com metodologia semelhante ao IDH, mas com adaptações necessárias. Utilizaram-se os microdados da PNAD do IBGE dos anos de 2005 e 2014 em nove principais metrópoles de diferentes regiões do país. O índice-síntese de trabalho decente final é composto por três índices calculados de acordo com os pilares do conceito (Emprego, Direitos e Princípios fundamentais no trabalho e Segurança Social + Diálogo Social). Para cada pilar, há uma ou mais dimensões. A composição do índice é dada, obviamente, por um conjunto de indicadores (ou variáveis). Em resumo, em termos práticos, entende-se que o índice-síntese final tem valor qualitativo. O estudo mostrou, comparativamente e dentro das limitações inerentes a qualquer índice, padrões de qualidade (de 0 a 1) do trabalho entre as regiões metropolitanas em dois anos (2005 e 2014). Vale dizer que o padrão de qualidade “alta” do trabalho, diagnosticada pelos resultados do índice em algumas metrópoles, traduz-se em nível de comparação com relação às demais regiões do grupo estudado. Ou seja, obviamente, se reconhece o déficit de trabalho decente nacional, sem eximir a vulnerabilidade ocupacional e precarização do mercado de trabalho. Não houve pretensões de inferir pelos resultados que a qualidade das condições laborais seja elevada. Mas apenas comparar, dentro do recorte geográfico escolhido, em quais metrópoles os indicadores se manifestaram em melhor ou pior situação, traduzida por meio de um índice sintético. Pode-se constatar pelos resultados, que a qualidade do emprego digno, restrita ao conceito de trabalho decente da OIT, se alterou no grupo comparativamente para pior na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo (de alta para média) e na Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre (de muito alta para alta). O movimento de melhora foi verificado na Região Metropolitana de Curitiba (de média para alta). Finalmente, o índice-síntese calculado revelou qualidade muito baixa nas seguintes metrópoles: Região Metropolitana de Belém, Região Metropolitana de Fortaleza, Região Metropolitana do Recife, Região Metropolitana de Salvador e Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro. / Since the end of the 1990s, the ILO has been making efforts to promote the generation of decent work. Using such objectives as promoting and complying with fundamental labor standards, principles and rights, creating decent opportunities for men and women, enhancing social protection effectively and strengthening tripartism and social dialogue. In the spectrum of the expansion of formal jobs in Brazil in recent years - 10.3 million between 2005 and 2015, according to CAGED data - nothing is revealed about what conditions workers are in their economic activities. Especially in metropolitan regions, where there is a strong generation of productive wealth. In addition, outside the "cream" of formal employment, there are workers in a precarious situation, which reinforces the need for an indication of the air that involves decent employment. In this way, the general objective of this dissertation is to verify the quality of the work among the metropolitan regions. The term quality is confined to the concept of decent work of the ILO, which, although broad, presents axes and dimensions capable of including aspects of decent work. This work contemplates the development of a decent work synthesis index, with methodology similar to the HDI, but with necessary adaptations. The microdata of the IBGE PNAD of the years 2005 and 2014 were used in nine major metropolises of different regions of the country. The final decent work summary index is composed of three indices calculated according to the pillars of the concept (Employment, Rights and Fundamental Principles at Work and Social Security + Social Dialogue). For each pillar, there are one or more dimensions. The composition of the index is, of course, given by a set of indicators (or variables). In summary, in practical terms, it is understood that the final index-synthesis has a qualitative value. The study showed, comparatively and within the limitations inherent in any index, quality standards (from 0 to 1) of work between metropolitan regions in two years (2005 and 2014). It is worth mentioning that the "high" quality standard of work, diagnosed by the results of the index in some metropolises, translates into a level of comparison with the other regions of the studied group. That is, of course, the national decent work deficit is recognized, without exempting the occupational vulnerability and precariousness of the labor market. There was no pretense of inferring from the results that the quality of working conditions is high. But only to compare, within the chosen geographic cut, in which metropolis the indicators were manifested in better or worse situation, translated by means of a synthetic index. It can be seen from the results that the quality of decent employment, restricted to the concept of decent work of the ILO, has changed in the comparatively worse group in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (from high to medium) and in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre ( From very high to high). The improvement movement was verified in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba (from medium to high). Finally, the calculated synthesis index showed very low quality in the following metropolises: Metropolitan Region of Belém, Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza, Metropolitan Region of Recife, Metropolitan Region of Salvador and Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro.

This thesis contains empirical studies of portfolio choice and asset prices. The first two chapters deal with incorporating labor supply into models traditionally only focusing on consumption. Can the risk premium on stocks be better understood when taking labor supply into account? This is the topic of the first chapter. Do possibilities of varying labor supply, and thus hedging stock market risk, help explain the stock ownership patterns of households? This question is what the second chapter tries to answer. If labor income moves with the stock market, an attempt should be made to hedge this with a lower share of stocks in the portfolio and, but do households act according to this rule? This is what the third chapter investigates. Chapter one, Labor Supply Flexibility and Portfolio Choice: Evidence from the PSID, examines the relationship between labor supply flexibility and portfolio choice. Theoretical articles have shown that, ceteris paribus, the optimal portfolio share of risky assets (stocks) increases with labor supply flexibility, due to increased possibilities of hedging financial risk by adjusting the labor supply. Using PSID household data, this hypothesis is tested using a direct measure of labor supply flexibility from survey questions. The results indicate that the total portfolio share is increased by labor supply flexibility. When separated, most of this effect seems to come from the increased probability of stock ownership due to flexible labor, rather than an increased portfolio share among stockholders. Chapter two, Can Leisure Explain the Equity Premium Puzzle? An Empirical Investigation, investigates the asset pricing properties of non-separable utility functions with consumption and leisure. The parameter restrictions needed to match the historical equity premium are explored using US data on consumption, hours and returns. Empirically, it is shown that to match the equity premium with a low level of risk aversion, consumption and leisure need to be strong complements, i.e. have a very low substitution elasticity. Chapter three, Income Risk and Stockholdings: Evidence from Swedish Microdata, examines the relationship between income risk and portfolio choice. It empirically investigates whether the stock market risk (the covariation with the stock market) in labor income is reflected by an offsetting lower share of stocks in financial portfolios, an effect that has been shown to exist in theoretical articles. Swedish microdata from HINK on households’ income and wealth are used for this purpose. In repeated cross-sections, households are divided into "portfolio cohorts" corresponding to percentiles of the share of stocks in financial assets. Income risk, i.e. the regression beta of (log) income growth on aggregate stock returns, is compared for the different groups. As predicted by theory, the results provide some support for a negative relationship between income risk and the share of stocks. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2004

Im vorliegenden Artikel werden die zentralen Ergebnisse der Studie zur Vermögensverteilung zwischen Frauen und Männern auf Personenebene in Österreich vorgestellt. Es wurden bereits zahlreiche Studien zu den Themen der Einkommensverteilung und dem geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnunterschied publiziert, die Analyse von Vermögensunterschieden zwischen Geschlechtern stand bisher allerdings nicht im Zentrum der Betrachtung. Dabei ist gerade Vermögen ein wesentlich umfassenderes Maß für den Wohlstand eines Haushalts bzw. Individuums. Die Untersuchung der geschlechtsspezifischen Vermögenslücke erfolgt im Rahmen der Studie zum ersten Mal für Österreich anhand von Individualdaten aus dem "Household Finance and Consumption Survey" (HFCS) 2014. Die Analyseergebnisse zeigen, dass das Nettovermögen innerhalb von Paarhaushalten ungleich verteilt ist und eine geschlechtsspezifische Vermögensdifferenz zulasten der Frauen existiert. In österreichischen Paarhaushalten kann im Durchschnitt ein Gender Wealth Gap in Höhe von 58.417 A ermittelt werden. Frauen in Paarhaushalten besitzen demnach um 28% weniger Vermögen als Männer. Dieser Artikel analysiert des Weiteren Unterschiede hinsichtlich Nettovermögen von Frauen und Männern in Paar- und Single-Haushalten anhand von Haushaltsstruktur und Entscheidungsmacht.

Submitted by Daniella Santos (daniella.santos@fgv.br) on 2009-10-19T12:18:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Joao_Luiz_Ayres.pdf: 463363 bytes, checksum: 3d72501f2cf6e2f0d459c3e04d7a6cfc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Antoanne Pontes(antoanne.pontes@fgv.br) on 2009-10-21T11:32:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Joao_Luiz_Ayres.pdf: 463363 bytes, checksum: 3d72501f2cf6e2f0d459c3e04d7a6cfc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2009-10-21T11:32:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Joao_Luiz_Ayres.pdf: 463363 bytes, checksum: 3d72501f2cf6e2f0d459c3e04d7a6cfc (MD5) / We investigate temporary sales using a very detailed data set for 13 years of retail prices in the Brazilian economy, with price quotes collected every 10-days. We find strong evidence of co-movement between frequency and size of sales and the macroeconomic varibles. The common belief in the literature that sales do not react to changes in macroeconomic variables may be due to little macro volatility in the analysed countries so far. / Nós investigamos promoções temporárias usando uma base de dados detalhada de 13 anos sobre preços ao consumidor no Brasil, com cotações de preços coletadas decendialmente. Nós encontramos forte evidências da existência de relação entre a frequência e tamanho de promoções e as variáveis macroeconômicas. A crença comum na literatura de que promoções não reagem a mudanças nas variáveis macroeconômicas pode ser devido a baixa volatilidade do cenário macro- econômico nos países analisados até o presente momento.

Submitted by silvia matos (silvia.matos@fgv.br) on 2011-05-11T12:11:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_SilviaMatos.pdf: 612943 bytes, checksum: afbbe0d255820e85eb4639ae4f0ef00e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado(andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2011-05-11T12:35:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_SilviaMatos.pdf: 612943 bytes, checksum: afbbe0d255820e85eb4639ae4f0ef00e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-11T18:12:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_SilviaMatos.pdf: 612943 bytes, checksum: afbbe0d255820e85eb4639ae4f0ef00e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-08 / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the price-setting behavior in Brazil and, in particular, the effects on inflation and good-level real exchange rate persistence. This thesis is composed by three Chapters. In the first Chapter, we present the main stylized facts about the behavior of retail prices in Brazil using micro data from the CPI index computed by the Fundação Getulio Vargas. Moreover we construct time series of price-setting statistics and relate them to macroeconomic variables using regression analyses. In Chapter 2, we investigated the relevance of heterogeneity in countries price stickiness on good-level real exchange rate persistence, considering a newly constructed panel data set of relative prices of 115 common products between the U.S. and Brazil. Chapter 3 is devoted to the relation between sectoral price stickiness and inflation persistence. / O objetivo desta tese é investigar as estratégias de precificação no Brasil, enfatizando os efeitos sobre a persistência da inflação e da taxa de câmbio real setorial. Esta tese é composta por três capítulos. No primeiro capítulo, nós apresentamos as principais características do comportamento dos preços no Brasil, utilizando os microdados do Índice de Preços ao Consumidor, computado pela Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Adicionalmente, nós construímos as séries de tempo das estatísticas de price-setting e as relacionamos com as variáveis macroeconômicas utilizando análise de regressão. No capítulo 2, nós investigamos o efeito da heterogeneidade da rigidez de preços entre países sobre a persistência da taxa de câmbio real setorial, considerando um painel de preços relativos de 115 produtos comuns entre Brasil e EUA. Por fim, o capítulo 3 explora a relação entre rigidez de preço setorial e persistência inflacionária.

O setor agropecuário brasileiro apresentou nas últimas décadas elevadas taxas de crescimento da produtividade total dos fatores (PTF). Conforme dados da Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB, 2016), as culturas de milho e soja situam-se entre as principais cadeias produtivas da agropecuária brasileira, caracterizando o Brasil como um dos principais produtores mundiais dessas culturas. Entretanto, as produtividades médias das culturas de milho e soja observadas em diversas regiões do território nacional apresentam-se aquém daquelas observadas em outros países produtores, indicando que ganhos de eficiência produtiva ainda são possíveis. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho, utilizando a metodologia de fronteira estocástica apresentada por Kumbhakar, Wang e Horncastle (2015), estimou a eficiência técnica dos produtores de milho e soja no Brasil incluindo na análise variáveis institucionais e agronômicas. Foram realizadas duas análises da eficiência técnica, uma considerando apenas os produtores do estado de São Paulo, a partir dos microdados do Levantamento Censitário das Unidades de Produção Agropecuária (LUPA), realizado pelo Instituto de Economia Agrícola no ano safra 2007/2008, e a segunda análise examinando a eficiência técnica em todo o país, utilizando os microdados do Censo Agropecuário 2006 do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE. Os principais resultados estimados revelaram que os produtores de milho são, na média, tecnicamente menos eficientes que os produtores de soja. Foi observado, também, a importância de técnicas modernas de manejo, como plantio direto, colheita mecanizada e manejo integrado de pragas, e do nível de instrução do produtor como determinantes da eficiência na produção de ambas as culturas no país. / In the last decades, the Brazilian agricultural sector presented high rates of growth of total factor productivity (TFP). According to data from the National Supply Company (CONAB, 2016), corn and soybean crops are among the main productive chains of Brazilian agriculture, characterizing Brazil as one of the main producers of these crops worldwide. However, the average yields of corn and soybean crops observed in several regions of the national territory are lower than those obtained in the other producing countries, indicating that gains in productive efficiency are still possible. In this sense, the present work, using the stochastic frontier methodology presented by Kumbhakar, Wang and Horncastle (2015), analyzed the technical efficiency of corn and soybean producers in Brazi, including in the analysis institutional and agronomic variables . Two analyzes of the technical efficiency were carried out, the first one considering only the producers within the state of São Paulo, based on the microdata of the Censitary Survey of Agricultural Production Units (LUPA), conducted by the Institute of Agricultural Economics in the 2007/2008 crop year, and the second was an analysis to estimate the technical efficiency throughout the country, using the microdata of the Agricultural Census 2006 of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE. The main estimated results showed that corn producers are, on average, technically less efficient than soybean producers. It was also observed the importance of modern management techniques such as tillage, mechanized harvesting and integrated pest management, and the producer level of education for the agricultural efficiency gains in the country.