Search

Your search keyword '"Lage de Sousa, Filipe"' showing total 15 results
Start Over Author "Lage de Sousa, Filipe"
15 results on '"Lage de Sousa, Filipe"'

5. Location of economic agents in Brazil : an empirical investigation

Author

Lage de Sousa, Filipe

Subjects
330.981, HC Economic History and Conditions
Abstract

This study focuses on regional aspects of the Brazilian economy. Three avenues are explored: two related to individuals' and firms' location decision and the last regarding public policy. In general, firms and individuals seem to be moving away from the main economic centre in Brazil, Sao Paulo. It seems nevertheless that public policy is not very related to these movements. In other words, government interventions to accelerate growth in less developed regions have not achieved their goal. Chapter 2 addresses the issue of internal migration in Brazil. This chapter investigates the influence of amenities and/or disamenities on migration flows, which is an issue not yet fully covered by the literature. It investigates whether changing dwellings across cities is associated specifically with violence using urban-urban migration data at municipality level. Results show that migration is affected by violence not only locally, but also when neighbouring effects are taken into account. These findings back up previous research which evidenced an inverse relationship between city size and violence. Turning to firms, Chapter 3 explores the role of geography in the location of manufacturing and of regional disparities in wages. According to theoretical models, employment concentrates closer to the market when increasing returns to scale are taken into account. As a consequence, regional wages are a decreasing function of transport costs to markets, since firms tend to compensate for these costs by paying less to their employees. Trade shocks may impact these regional wage disparities by making foreign markets relatively more attractive for firms than internal markets, or vice-versa. This chapter tested these hypotheses using Brazilian regional data. Having two isolated trade shocks, Brazil provides an excellent case for testing which shock was more effective in reducing regional disparities. Results show that regions with higher transport costs tend to have lower wages and a reduction in this cost through trade shocks has affected these regional disparities. However, it is not possible to distinguish which trade shock was more efficient to impact these regional unbalances. Chapter 4 evaluates the effects of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) loans on firms' productivity. The importance of BNDES in the Brazilian economy is quite sizeable, reaching over 10% of aggregate investment. Using micro level data, it was possible to investigate the impact on productivity, but also distinguish its effects between large and small projects as well as between rich and poor regions, since regional development is one of its statutory goals. Results suggest BNDES loans have no effect on firms' productivity, even though some association was found without controlling for all firms' characteristics. Overall, some lessons may be learned after this work. Not only are economic reasons key determinants for individuals' and firms' location decision as shown in Chapters 2 and 3 but also some other factors seem to be important as well. Social amenities, locally and in surrounding areas, are highly correlated to individuals' migration decisions in the Brazilian case, especially violence. For firms, economic reasons prevail since trade shocks appear to change regions' attractiveness between internal and external market. Last, but not least, government intervention does not seem to be associated to firms' productivity after BNDES loans.

Published
2009

8. Relaxing credit constraints in emerging economies: The impact of public loans on the performance of Brazilian manufacturers

Author

Ottaviano, Gianmarco I. P. and Lage de Sousa, Filipe

Subjects
productivity, public policy analysis, ddc:330, heterogeneous firms, H00, credit constraints, O38
Abstract

Especially in developing countries credit constraints are often perceived as one of the most important market frictions constraining firm innovation and growth. Huge amounts of public money are being devoted to the removal of such constraints but their effectiveness is still subject to an intense policy debate. This paper contributes to this debate by analysing the effects of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) loans. It finds that, before receiving BNDES support, granted firms are indeed more credit constrained than comparable non-granted firms. It also finds that BNDES support allows granted firms to achieve the same level of performance as similar non-granted firms that are not credit constrained. However, it does not allow granted firms to outperform similar non-granted ones.

Published
2014

10. Trade Shocks in Brazil: An Investigation of Effects on Regional Manufacturing Wages

Author

Lage-De-Sousa, Filipe

Subjects
ddc:330
Abstract

Brazil has experienced two trade shocks in the 90’s: unilateral liberalization, which weighted average nominal tariff reduced from 37.7% in 1988 to 10.2% in 1994; drastically real devaluation of 47% in the exchange rate in 1999. These two effects has influenced the location of industry in Brazil, since the industry center of Brazil, Sao Paulo State, reduced its participation in the industry sector from 52% in 1985 to 43% in 2002. This occurs when the dispersion forces overcome the agglomeration ones. The main dispersion force evidenced by the literature is the increase of competition, not only in the goods market (a new product), but also in the factor market (demand of labor, which increases wages). In a trade agreement, the most common trade shock, these two forces occurred simultaneously. At this case, it is possible to distinguish between two dispersion forces: competition of the imported goods (first shock); competition in the labor market (second shock). One way to evaluate these effects can be by investigating the effectiveness of transport cost to understand the regional differences in wages and if it has reduced (or increased) its explanation power after the trade shock. In order to do that, the methodology of Hanson 1997 will be used as a basic framework. It is possible to analyze the effects of these trade shocks in the disparities of regional wages in Brazil with his methodology. However, there will be some differences to his framework. First, Hanson uses state level data and this paper has a more disaggregated regional data (microregion, which divides Brazil into more than 500 parts). Second, Hanson doesn’t take into account any change in educational level, infrastructure improvement or government intervention, which are considered in this investigation. The first results show that transport cost is important to understand differences in wages between Brazilian microregions and trade shocks have influenced in some sense these disparities, but not so consistently as transport costs. Moreover, it seems that dispersion force of the second shock was greater than the first one, therefore, competition to hire new employees expel more plants to lower wages regions than comptetion with new products.

Published
2006

13. Does crime affect migration flows?

Author

Lage de Sousa, Filipe

Subjects
*EMIGRATION & immigration, *EXTERNALITIES, *DWELLINGS, *CRIME statistics, *GRAVITY model (Social sciences)
Abstract

The influence of urban externalities on migration flows has not been fully examined in the previous literature. This paper investigates whether a change in dwellings across cities is associated with a specific urban externality, crime rates, using urban-to-urban migration data at the municipal level. Gravity equation results show that migration is affected by crime rates, not only locally but also when neighbouring effects are taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2014
Full Text
View/download PDF

14. Relaxing credit constraints in emerging economies: the impact of public loans on the productivity of Brazilian manufacturers

Author

Lage de Sousa, Filipe, Ottaviano, Gianmarco I. P., Lage de Sousa, Filipe, and Ottaviano, Gianmarco I. P.

Abstract

In emerging economies credit constraints are often perceived as one of the most important market frictions hampering firm productivity growth in manufacturing. Huge amount of public money is devoted to the removal of such constraints but its effectiveness is still subject to an intense policy debate. This paper contributes to this debate by analyzing the effects of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) loans. Exploiting the unique features of a dataset on BNDES loans to Brazilian manufactures, it finds that credit constraints facing Brazilian manufacturing firms are real, in particular for firms that apply to BNDES repeatedly, and BNDES support has allowed granted firms to match the performance of similar unconstrained firms but not to outperform them.

15. Regional manufacturing wages: dancing to the tune of trade shocks

Author

Lage de Sousa, Filipe and Lage de Sousa, Filipe

Abstract

Firms generally choose to locate their production where profits are maximized. As costs affect profits, trade-offs between two marginal costs – employees’ wages and transport costs – may be important for decisions regarding location. Wages tend to be greater in industrial centres and decrease as transport costs increase. Trade shocks might impact regional wage disparities by making foreign markets, for example, relatively more attractive for firms than domestic markets. This paper tests these two hypotheses by using regional Brazilian data. Results corroborate that regions with higher transport costs present lower wages, and that trade shocks affect these regional wage disparities.

Catalog

Books, media, physical & digital resources
See catalog results