Recent studies have emphasized the importance of the quality of politicians for good government and consequently economic performance. But if the quality of leadership matters, then understanding what motivates individuals to become politicians and perform competently in office becomes a central question. In this paper, we examine whether higher wages attract better quality politicians and improve political performance using exogenous variation in the salaries' of local legislators across Brazil's municipal governments. The analysis exploits discontinuities in wages across municipalities induced by a constitutional
amendment defining caps on the salary of local legislatures according to municipal population. Our main findings show that increases in salaries not only attracts more candidates, but more educated ones. Elected officials are in turn more educated and stay in office longer. Higher salaries also increase legislative productivity as measured by the number of bills submitted and approved, and the provision of public goods.

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Motivating Politicians: The Impacts of Monetary Incentives on Quality and Performance

The central hypothesis derived in this article is that the ability of Brazil's central government to bypass governors determined the success of delivering public goods federation-wide in the area of noncontributory social protection policy. The Workers' Party's (Partido dos Trabalhadores) first-term administration from 2003 to 2006 successfully reformed, expanded, and implemented four previously existing cash-transfer programs designed to alleviate poverty. The central administration's flagship program Bolsa Familia was implemented in all of Brazil's municipalities, delivering benefits to more than 11 million households. A nonmajoritarian political system, the constitutional autonomy of municipalities, and the gradual hardening of post-1995 subnational budget constraints facilitated the ability of the central government to live up to the aspirations and expectations of the Brazilian public by combating hunger, poverty, and misery through this program. This article shows these institutional factors to have provided incentives for successful central-local collaboration in this social policy area.

Avoiding Governors: The Success of Bolsa Família

Increasingly, it is said that the main determinants of electoral outcomes are class, ethnicity, and religion and that local political organizations occupy only marginal roles in national elections. I assess the effects of local party organizations in the presidential election of 1989 in Brazil. Given the long hiatus in competitive politics, the absence of any parties linked to the country's previous democratic experience, and the weakness of citizen identification with political parties, Brazil should be a textbook example of the collapse of local political organizations. The presidential candidates, however, acted as if party endorsements mattered, and in the context of Brazilian politics, it was rational for municipal mayors to trade blocs of votes for future local benefits. Applying a series of increasingly complex models to the vote shares of the leading candidates, I show that all candidates did significantly better in municipalities where the mayor represented their party. I also show that spatial factors affect the tactics of local politicians, and I distinguish charismatic from purely organizational components of support.

The Reverse Coattails Effect: Local Party Organization in the 1989 Brazilian Presidential Election

This article analyzes the determinants of local institutions in Brazil. We show that institutional quality and distribution of land are partly inherited from the colonial histories experienced by different areas of the country. The sugar cane boom—characterized by an oligarchic society—is associated with more land inequality. The gold boom—characterized by a heavily inefficient presence of the Portuguese state—is associated with worse governance and access to justice. We do not find similar effects for a postcolonial boom (coffee). We also find that the colonial episodes are correlated with lower provision of public goods.

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Institutional development and colonial heritage within Brazil

Conventional wisdom usually underestimates the important role of public research institutes and universities in successful cases of Brazilian economy. History of science and technology institutions shows a long-term process of formation of these institutions and their interactions with industrial firms, agricultural producers or society. This paper investigates historical roots of successful cases of Brazil. First, we present the late onset of National Innovation System (NSI) institutions and waves of institutional formation in Brazil. Second, we describe the history of three ed successful cases, which spans from a low-tech sector (agriculture), a medium-tech sector (steel and special metal alloys), to a high-tech sector (aircraft). These findings present new challenges for present-day developmental policies.
JEL Classification: N; O3.

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The underestimated role of universities for the Brazilian system of innovation

/pdf/coronelismo-enxada-e-voto-4ekaufu66b.pdf

Coronelismo, enxada e voto

The article analyses the emergence of organizations that originated Embraer, i.e., the Ministry of Aeronautics, the Aeronautics Technological Center (CTA) and the Aeronautics Technological Institute (ITA), founded in the 1940's and 1950's. These organizations made it possible for the state enterprise to come into existence in 1969. This paper analyses the Embraer's involvement with the Aeronautics' national defense strategic project.

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As origens da Embraer

/pdf/os-militares-na-politica-as-mudancas-de-padroes-na-vida-lkwocl3tgt.pdf

Os militares na política: as mudanças de padrões na vida brasileira

https://www.scielo.br/pdf/rae/v20n2/v20n2a10.pdf

Sindicalismo no processo político no Brasil

O artigo trata da questao da imigracao de brasileiros para os Estados Unidos, fenomeno social que vem atingindo enormes proporcoes, mas que ainda e relativamente desconhecido e pouco estudado no pais. O texto privilegia o processo migratorio na decada de 80, periodo em que a migracao aumenta extraordinariamente, mas tenta, descrevendo dois casos concretos, comparar duas experiencias diversas em termos geracionais e sociais, abrangendo um caso de imigracao legal no inicio dos anos 60 e um caso de imigracao ilegal em meados da decada de 80.

/pdf/os-exilados-da-decada-de-80-imigrantes-brasileiros-nos-4wqbsyfs3q.pdf

Maria Cecília Spina Forjaz

Papers

Coronelismo, enxada e voto

As origens da Embraer

Os militares na política: as mudanças de padrões na vida brasileira

Sindicalismo no processo político no Brasil

Os exilados da década de 80: imigrantes brasileiros nos Estados Unidos