O propósito geral deste estudo foi identificar quais fatores estariam limitando o do Vale do Tietê-Paraná. Os planos e projetos enfatizam o estoque de capital físico. Como a ênfase nesse estoque esgotou-se na literatura, as atenções voltaram-se para outras formas de capital. Diante disso, os objetivos específicos foram: (1) avaliar as alternativas propostas para os municípios do Vale do Tietê-Paraná expressas nos projetos e planos para a região; (2) analisar a importância dos estoques de capitais para o desenvolvimento dos municípios paulistas lindeiros aos rios Tietê-Paraná, e (3) verificar possíveis diferenças, entre os fatores determinantes do desenvolvimento, existente entre esses municípios e os outros municípios do Estado. Detectou-se, através do Método da Estrutura Lógica, inconsistência nos planos e projetos existentes para o Vale. Quanto aos estoques de capitais, este estudo utilizou a metodologia dos Componentes Principais para reduzir o número de variáveis levantadas inicialmente para representar os cinco estoques de capitais: natural, físico, financeiro, humano e social. A análise incluiu 625 municípios e criou-se uma variável dummy para diferenciar os lindeiros. Nove fatores são os representativos dos estoques de capitais e foram denominados: capital humano 1 (educação); capital físico; capital social 1 (associativismo); capital humano 2 (saúde); capital financeiro 1 (arrecadação); capital social 2 (desconfiança); capital natural 1 (terra); capital financeiro 2; capital natural 2 (depreciação).A percentagem da variância total explicada por cada um dos estoques foi: 19...

A presente dissertação faz uma abordagem do tema da redução do capital de companhias abertas e fechadas no Brasil, apresentando-o em duas partes. Na primeira parte, composta pelos Capítulos 1 e 2, são tratados aspectos gerais e, na segunda parte, composta pelos Capítulos 3 e 4, são tratados aspectos específicos das reduções do capital social. No Capítulo 1, é apresentado um breve histórico do capital social, em que se procura estalecer a sua origem e relação com a função de produtividade das primeiras companhias, afastando-se do pensamento tradicional de que o capital social tenha tido a sua origem relacionada com a função de proteção de credores. Além disso, é apresentada uma noção geral de capital social, suas classificações, princípios mais relevantes e funções, sempre com o foco de preparar a discussão para a sua redução. No Capítulo 2, é apresentada uma noção geral da redução do capital e a visão do autor dos dois principais princípios que a informam: o da igualdade e o da proteção aos credores. A análise prossegue, para apresentar uma classificação das reduções do capital de acordo com as suas causas ou de acordo com os efeitos que produzem no patrimônio das companhias. Por fim...

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo investigar as relações entre capital social, níveis participativos e a participação da população num Plano Diretor Municipal. Destaca-se que a partir do Estatuto da Cidade, Lei Federal 10.257/2001, a inclusão da população na elaboração de Planos Diretores Municipais passou a ser obrigatória para garantir a sua validade. Para estudo de caso, utilizou-se o processo de elaboração do Plano Diretor Participativo de Araucária, município da Região Metropolitana de Curitiba, leste do Paraná. Foi verificado o estoque de capital social existente no município antes da elaboração do Plano e qual o capital social produzido a partir da participação no Plano. Foram analisados os diferentes níveis de participação das instâncias participativas e dos participantes do Plano. A análise foi realizada com base em fonte documental (dados populacionais e sócio-econômicos) e dados de campo (entrevistas e questionários). A pesquisa revelou que há mais utilização de estoque do que produção de capital social e que a produção de capital social é tanto maior quanto maior for o seu estoque original. Os níveis participativos também variam em função do capital social pré-existente...

Este trabalho ? um estudo sobre participa??o e envolvimento s?cio-pol?tico dos moradores da ?rea de Retiro Grande na Ilha do Maraj?, no Munic?pio de Cachoeira do Arari. Esta ?rea foi escolhida por ser uma localidade situada numa regi?o onde predominam baixas condi??es socioecon?micas, por?m, onde seus moradores come?aram a se organizar para superar os problemas e car?ncias que enfrentavam. Estas a??es come?aram com empreendimentos realizados de forma associativa na pr?pria ?rea e se expandiram at? a participa??o na esfera p?blica local. O objetivo desta investiga??o ? descortinar quais os elementos que permitiram (facilitaram) os processos de organiza??o, a??o coletiva e participa??o pol?tica entre os moradores dessa localidade. Dois fatores foram considerados: a escolariza??o e o capital social. As quest?es que nortearam esta investiga??o foram: qual o papel desempenhado pelo capital social no desencadeamento dos processos de organiza??o e engajamento comunit?rio na ?rea de Retiro Grande? Qual a influ?ncia da escolariza??o sobre os n?veis de participa??o e envolvimento s?cio-pol?tico dos seus moradores. Para fazer esta investiga??o primeiro fez-se uma revis?o da bibliografia sobre o capital social e escolariza??o assim como sobre o Munic?pio de Cachoeira do Arari. Na fase seguinte tratou-se da pesquisa de campo para a obten??o dos dados a serem analisados. Conclui-se que o capital social gerado a partir dos fatores de coes?o da comunidade foi o fator fundamental para produzir a capacidade de organiza??o e envolvimento comunit?rio dos moradores de Retiro Grande e o desenvolvimento entre eles da participa??o social e pol?tica. Contudo o capital social produzido e acumulado foi relevante por meio da atua??o da igreja cat?lica nesta regi?o...

Despite the recent increase in capital flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region remains largely marginalized in financial globalization and chronically dependent on official development aid. And with the potential decline in the level of official development assistance in a context of global financial crisis, the need to increase domestic resources mobilization as well as non-debt generating external resources is critical now more than ever before. However, the debate on resource mobilization has overlooked an important untapped source of funds consisting of the massive stocks of private wealth stashed in Western financial centers, a substantial part of which left the region in the form of capital flight. This paper argues that the repatriation of flight capital should take a more prominent place in this debate from a moral standpoint and for clear economic reasons. On the moral side, the argument is that a large proportion of the capital flight legitimately belongs to the Africans and therefore must be restituted to the legitimate claimants. The economic argument is that repatriation of flight capital will propel the sub-continent on a higher sustainable growth path while preserving its financial stability and without mortgaging the welfare of its future generations through external borrowing. The analysis in the paper demonstrates quantitatively that the gains from repatriation are large and dominate the expected benefits from other sources such as debt relief. It is estimated that if only a quarter of the stock of capital flight was repatriated to Sub-Saharan Africa...

Mitigation investments in long-lived capital stock (LLKS) differ from other types of mitigation investments in that, once established, LLKS can lock-in a stream of emissions for extended periods of time. Moreover, historical examples from industrial countries suggest that investments in LLKS projects or networks tend to be lumpy, and tend to generate significant indirect and induced emissions besides direct emissions. Looking forward, urbanization and rapid economic growth suggest that similar decisions about LLKS are being or will soon be made in many developing countries. In their current form, carbon markets do not provide correct incentives for mitigation investments in LLKS because the constraint on carbon extends only to 2012, and does not extend to many developing countries. Targeted mitigation programs in regions and sectors in which LLKS is being built at rapid rate are thus necessary to avoid getting locked into highly carbon-intensive LLKS. Even if the carbon markets were extended (geographically, sectorally...

The paper presents a dynamic model for small to medium open economies operating under a fixed exchange rate regime. The model provides a partial explanation of the channels through which fiscal and monetary policy affects the real exchange rate. An empirical investigation is conducted for the case of Argentina during the currency board period of 1991-2001. Empirical estimates show that fiscal policy may indeed be an efficient instrument for promoting macroeconomic stability insofar as it encourages convergence toward long-run equilibrium and alters the long-term balance between exports and consumption, both private and public. The simulation applied to Argentina shows that if the share of public spending in the economy is higher than the share of imports, an increase in the tax rate will stimulate capital stock slightly, at least in the short term, and depreciate the real effective exchange rate. In the long run, the fiscal policy affects the value of the real exchange rate and consequently external competitiveness.

Small and informal firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries. The rapid expansion of microfinance services is based on the belief that these firms have productive investment opportunities and can enjoy high returns to capital if given the opportunity. However, measuring the return to capital is complicated by unobserved factors such as entrepreneurial ability and demand shocks, which are likely to be correlated with capital stock. The authors use a randomized experiment to overcome this problem and to measure the return to capital for the average microenterprise in their sample, regardless of whether they apply for credit. They accomplish this by providing cash and equipment grants to small firms in Sri Lanka, and measuring the increase in profits arising from this exogenous (positive) shock to capital stock. After controlling for possible spillover effects, the authors find the average real return to capital to be 5.7 percent a month, substantially higher than the market interest rate. They then examine the heterogeneity of treatment effects to explore whether missing credit markets or missing insurance markets are the most likely cause of the high returns. Returns are found to vary with entrepreneurial ability and with measures of other sources of cash within the household...

How many and which firms issue equity and bonds in domestic and international markets, how do these firms grow relative to non-issuing firms, and how does firm performance vary along the firm size distribution? To evaluate these questions, a new data set is constructed by matching data on firm-level capital raising activity with balance sheet data for 45,527 listed firms in 51 countries. Three main patterns emerge from the analysis. (1) Only a few large firms issue equity or bonds, and among them a small subset has raised a large proportion of the funds raised during the 1990s and 2000s. (2) Issuers grow faster than non-issuers in assets, sales, and employment, that is, firms do not simply use securities markets to adjust their financial accounts. (3) The firm size distribution of issuers evolves differently from that of non-issuers, tightening among issuers and widening among non-issuers.

In this article we estimate the depreciation rate of the capital stock jointly with the parameters of a production function. We use data on 81 Spanish manufacturing sectors for the period 1978-1992. The methodology used allows us to obtain consistent capital stock series using gross investment data and an initial capital stock.

In this paper, new series of Spain’s capital stock and input are constructed for the last one-and-a-half centuries. Capital stock and input grew at average rates of 3.5 and 3.7 percent per year but not at a steady pace since rates accelerated dramatically during the ‘Golden Age’. Two major structural changes accompanied this process. Composition of capital stock and remuneration changed gradually as the contribution of productive capital rose while that of structures declined. Spanish economy experienced capital deepening in the long-run. Although the capital-output ratio increased over time, in phases of accelerated growth the productivity of capital rose.

349 leaves; This thesis attempts to explain some of the problems in the statistical measurement and handling of capital stock estimates. We are led into a discussion of some aspects of replacement and technical progress. The reason for the inquiry is clear. With the proliferation of writings on growth theory in recent years and, in particular, the questioning of the role of capital, one is struck by the ease with which the concept is used and the statistical measures estimated. Al;though there are important concepts which defy quantification, this is not the case with capital; if anything the mass of conflicting material and the variety of results arouses suspicion, Admittedly there are handicaps in the way of a statistical presentation of any concept by an examination of the plethora of work on capital does suggest some gaps in the theoretical and empirical framework and the links between them. (First paragraph of preface).

This paper offers an assessment of the methodologies employed to estimate the economic opportunity cost of capital for public sector projects, relying on the Mexican case for an applied empirical exercise. The traditional weighted cost of capital (top-down) approach used in the estimation of Mexico's economic opportunity cost of capital is reviewed and compared to the supply price (bottom-up) approach. With respect to previous studies using the top-down approach, this paper explores the contribution of domestic savings and expands the analysis to include a more detailed examination of the available macroeconomic, labor, financial, and tax information. The re-estimated top-down economic opportunity cost of capital for Mexico comes to 10.4 percent. To confirm these results and provide additional insights regarding the alternative bottom-up approach, the economic opportunity cost of capital is estimated using the supply price plus externalities method. For the case of Mexico, this paper recommends using a combination of estimation models (both the top-down and bottom-up approaches) to check the consistency of results and re-estimating the economic opportunity cost of capital every five years to accommodate for macroeconomic and fiscal changes. More broadly...

Stock exchanges around the world have launched Corporate Governance Indices (CGIs), sometimes as part of a broader Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiative. The comprehensive analysis of these indices presented in this study is the first of its kind, and it reveals that CGIs have a positive impact, enhancing legal and regulatory frameworks by extending governance criteria to develop objective and measurable benchmarks. The study also shows that CGIs present companies with an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market and, ultimately, offer companies an incentive to adopt better governance practices. Nevertheless, as the process for vetting and evaluation of companies for inclusion in the indices continues to evolve, access to underlying methodologies, disclosure of the ratings and self-assessments of individual companies, and of overall monitoring processes and procedures can still be enhanced. This study reviews the different approaches used by stock exchanges to build indices incorporating corporate governance. In the case of ESG indices...

This paper examines the impacts of disasters on dynamic human capital production using panel data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi. The empirical results show that the accumulation of biological human capital prior to disasters helps children maintain investments in the post-disaster period. Biological human capital formed in early childhood (long-term nutritional status) plays a role of insurance with resilience to disasters by protecting schooling investment and outcomes, although disasters have negative impacts on investment. In Bangladesh, children with more biological human capital are less affected by the adverse effects of floods, and the rate of investment increases with the initial human capital stock in the post-disaster recovery process. In Ethiopia and Malawi, where droughts are rather frequent, exposure to highly frequent droughts in some cases reduces schooling investment but the negative impacts are larger among children embodying less biological human capital. Asset holdings prior to the disasters...

Real GDP per capita and capital stock in Cote d'Ivoire grew strongly from 1960 to 1979, but have declined ever since, for twenty-five years. As a result, the country has traveled a full circle from economic success to failure in little more than a generation. What are the long-term factors behind this dismal growth story? Are the Ivorian development problems mostly of recent origin? Or there are more fundamental, economic factors that explain its long term performance? Four principal conclusions are as follows: First, Cote d'Ivoire's long-term growth performance is not fully explained by temporary factors (e.g., CFA overvaluation or recent conflict). Longer term factors such as capital accumulation, productivity, and terms of trade are key to understanding the country's performance as is the policy of specialization in a single commodity--cocoa. Second, the long-term decline in per capita output started well before the currency overvaluation, and at a time of political stability, and is related to a major...

The economy of the Philippines is open to trade and capital inflows, and has grown rapidly since 2002. Over the last 10 years, however, domestic investment, while stagnant in real terms, has shrunk as a share of GDP. In an open and growing economy, why the decline? Three reasons explain the puzzle. First, the public sector cannot afford expanding its investment at GDP growth rates. Second, the capital-intensive private sector does not find it convenient to raise investment at the economy's pace. Third, fast-growing businesses in the service sector do not need to rapidly increase investment to enjoy rising profits. Yet, the economy keeps growing. On the demand-side, massive labor migration results in remittances that fuel consumption-led-growth. On the supply-side, free from rent-capturing regulations, a few non-capital-intensive manufactures and services boost exports. The economic system is in equilibrium at a low level of capital stock, where all economic agents have no incentive to unilaterally increase investment and the first mover bears short-term costs. As a consequence...

The past three and a half decades witnessed a distinctly declining trend in Singapore's unemployment rate, which dropped from an average annual rate of 7.85 percent in 1966-70 to 2.74 percent in 1991-2000. The authors seek to identify and empirically examine the factors that have influenced Singapore's unemployment rate in an environment of low and stable inflation. They incorporate a union bargaining framework into a standard-factors trade model, in which an increase in the relative price or capital stock in the export sector raises the demand wage that firms can afford to pay relative to workers' fall-back income, and consequently lowers equilibrium unemployment. The magnitude of the effects depends on the fall-back income, the weight unions attach to employment, and the elasticity of labor demand, which the authors estimate using data on Singapore. The results show that labor unions in Singapore care more about employment than wages. Together with a small fall-back income and elastic labor demand, the authors show that given the same percentage change in relative export prices and capital accumulation in the export sector...

China's performance in economic growth, and poverty reduction has been remarkable. There is an ongoing debate about whether this growth is mainly driven by productivity, or factor accumulation. But few past studies have incorporated information on China's human capital stock, and thus contained an omission bias. The authors construct a measure of China's human capital stock from 1952 to 1999, and, using a simple growth accounting exercise, incorporate it in their analysis of the sources of growth, during the pre-reform (1952-77), and the reform period (1978-99). They find that the accumulation of human capital in China (as measured by the average years of schooling for the population aged 15 to 64) was quite rapid, and contributed significantly to growth, and welfare. After incorporating human capital, they also find that the growth of total factor productivity, still plays a positive, and significant role during the reform period. In contrast, productivity growth was negative in the pre-reform period. The results are robust to changes in labor shares in GDP. The recent declining rate of human capital accumulation is a cause for concern...

This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the overall magnitude of intangible investment and the impact of this intangible investment on the behavior of the capital stock and on the value of capital goods. I begin by constructing a data set to document firms’ expenditures on an identi- fiable list of intangible items in Canada. I then examine the implications of treating intangible spending as the acquisition of final (investment) goods on estimates of GDP growth for Canada. I find that investment in intangible capital by 2002 is almost as large as the investment in physical capital. Furthermore, the growth in GDP and labor productivity may be underestimated by as much as 0.1 percentage point per year during this same period. I proceed by measuring the size of the stock of the intangible capital in Canada using newly released data on the market value of all securities in the economy. The approach taken relies on a quantitative application of the q-theory of investment to generate the quantity of capital owned by firms. I find that the intangible capital stock accounted for approximately 30% of overall capital since 1994. Of this, the R&D reported by national accounts makes up only 23%. These results imply that official Canadian statistics failed to account for 26% of the value of the capital stock in their 2005 quarterly data collection. Finally...