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In the third year of elementary school, after three full school years, 22% of students can read only single words in Brazil (INEP, 2016). Difficulties with reading and writing are associated with the teaching method and the absence of appropriate literacy practices. Most children that have learning difficulties can overcome it with proper instruction. The central issue discussed in this article is that for the children to learn to read, it is necessary to explicitly teach them to read. Therefore, this paper aim to (1) discuss and bring effective examples of how neuroscientific theories of reading can help us find the more effective method of literacy and teaching reading, and (2) the creation of an informative brochure for elementary school teachers, whose focus is to illustrate and make practical suggestions on scientific evidence-based literacy. Based on evidence from neuroscientific studies that underline the importance of teaching the alphabetical principle and the development of phonological awareness, we have prepared a pamphlet with practical tips and techniques for teaching reading based on the phonic method, a method that corresponds to the evidence from neuroscientific studies reviewed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes public sector projects and programs in Brazil that received external financing from multilateral and bilateral agencies at the federal, state, and municipal levels between 2000 and 2020. The analyzed data were collected in the COFIEX Panel of the Brazilian Ministry of Economy, categorized, and presented in this article in a contextual way, aiming to represent the first overview of this object for studies on Public Administration in the country. An important instrument of the International Development Cooperation System, International Financing for Development follows international organizations" agendas and guidelines that have changed throughout history. Thus, in addition to exploring the main creditor sources, sectors, and federal units of destination of International Development Financing to Brazil, the article verified how the characteristics of international financing received between 2000-2015 and post-2015 reflect the agendas and guidelines of International Development Cooperation of the respective periods, namely, the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). As a result, in addition to presenting a pioneering exploratory analysis of the data, it was possible to verify an inflection of external financing received by Brazil after 2015 in the direction of the current agenda and guidelines of International Development Cooperation. Finally, the paper presents directions for future research agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to understand the relationships between the consolidation of the actuarial profession and social security policies in Brazil, from the First Republic up to the Vargas Era. In general, there is little literature on the history of the actuarial profession in Brazil. Specifically, there is no study that addresses the relationship between the development of the actuarial profession and the social security policies at the crucial moment of Brazilian social security expansion during the Vargas Era. This paper contributes to filling that gap. From time to time, Brazilian social security reforms are debated. The role of actuaries in this discussion is poorly understood. However, these professionals have historically been essential to social security policies. This article sheds light on that history. The text may broaden the knowledge on the history of the actuarial profession and its relationships with social security policies in Brazil. This is a historical study, built based on primary documentation. Sources were researched relating to the actuarial organizations for social security in Brazil and the actuarial professionals who composed their staff. The references to the professional trajectories of actuaries were crossed and considered in light of the information gathered regarding the actions of the institutions that employed them. The analysis was qualitative and the material was interpreted with the support of the referenced bibliography. This article reveals that the consolidation of the actuarial profession came about based on the participation of engineers-actuaries in the public organizations that supported the varguista social security policies. The paper also contributes to broadening the knowledge on the history of the actuarial profession in Brazil from the First Republic up to the Vargas Era (1930-1945). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's main objective is to present the circumstances that signal an imminent commercial bank liquidation and the conditions in which mergers are advantageous for a potential acquirer. In addition, it applies the method in an empirical investigation within the context of the domestic banking industry. The research reveals new explanatory factors for liquidations and mergers between robust and insolvent banking institutions, such as bankruptcy costs and tax credits derived from a corporate union. The framework stands out for highlighting the role of creditor financial institutions participating in the open and interbank markets, which in the search to maximize their utility together with that of the shareholders have a decisive influence over the continuity or closure of the bank in crisis. The soundness of the financial system is an essential public good for society. Systemic financial crises cause significant costs for economic agents, such as a fall in production, increased unemployment, a rise in the fiscal deficit, and asset price instability. Efforts to achieve stability involve the regular functioning of banks. In this context, it is important to understand the circumstances under which banking institution distress can be solved by alternatives that are less costly for the treasury. Often, the research indicates the causes of disruptions to corporate activities; however, the explanatory variables and the tools used by bankruptcy prediction models are constantly being evaluated. Theories that elucidate the phenomenon are even scarcer. The paper's result suggests the effectiveness of the method developed from the paradigmatic perspective of the field of economics and management, corroborating agency theory. The explanatory variables of bankruptcy and bank merger highlighted in this research can contribute to the elaboration of robust models to predict financial distress. The mathematical model of liquidation and merger was constructed from the viewpoint of an imperfect world where informational asymmetry and conflict of interests among shareholders, open and interbank market creditors, and bondholders (which includes depositors and holders of bonds issued by the bank) prevail. Bankruptcy maximizes shareholder and creditor utility if liquidation costs plus the value payable to the bondholders after liquidation are lower than the value they receive in the event of continuity. A merger is feasible for an acquirer if expected return plus tax benefits minus bondholder expenses is greater than the value payable to interbank market creditors. The method is applied to the merger between Itaú and Unibanco, considered a milestone in the process of consolidating the banking market in Brazil. This paper suggests the use of an algebraic model, based on agency theory, as an indicator of conditions for liquidations and bank mergers. The proposed approach was adequate for explaining the union between Unibanco and Itaú, which culminated in the largest private financial conglomerate in the Southern Hemisphere. Unibanco experienced the bankruptcy circumstances and there was evidence that Itaú's tax benefits encouraged the merger. This article contributes to academic epistemology because it revisits the classical model, characterized by mathematical and theoretical robustness, and adjusts it to the specificities of banks. In addition to this methodological novelty, it applies it to an emblematic case, making it a useful tool for corporate decision-making and bank supervision, especially with regards to actions focused on financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the presence of window dressing in the Brazilian investment fund market, focusing on equity funds. Window dressing is a practice that presents a particular portfolio composition to the market, which is different from that held by the fund in the reporting period. Just before the end of the period, fund managers change their positions with the aim of presenting safer, more profitable securities portfolios. We believe that there is a lack of empirical evidence on this topic in Brazil. Previous research focuses on diversification, style analysis, fund portfolio turnover, manager profile, and performance. Therefore, we believe that our paper is pioneering in presenting results on window dressing in Brazil. With the presence of window dressing, the market may signal distorted results to investors and guide their allocations towards funds in which they would not invest in the absence of such practices. Moreover, the adoption of window dressing may increase transaction costs and thus destroy value. Our results present a connection with previous studies by Bremer and Kato (1996), O'Neal (2001), Ng and Wang (2004), Ortiz, Sarto, and Vicente (2012), and Agarwal, Gay, and Ling (2014). This paper provides evidence of window dressing in Brazilian equity funds and proposes an empirical study to verify the presence of the practice between 2010 and 2016, using market model residuals, rank gap, and backward holding return gap analysis techniques. In short, our results are consistent with window dressing practices in funds managed by small companies that were losers against the Bovespa Index and presented a high tracking error in the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate whether the key audit matters (KAMs) contained in the annual standardized financial statements (SFSs) of Brazilian listed companies have contributed with informational relevance for investors. The study fills a gap in the literature by evaluating the Brazilian market's reaction to the disclosure of the information contained in the KAMs, which became mandatory for listed companies to disclose in their financial statements as of the 2016 fiscal year. The topic under analysis is of practical relevance as the use of KAMs in the independent auditor's report is growing and expanding to other publicly-held companies in addition to listed ones. This study provides a contribution to the Brazilian capital market regulator (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários - CVM) and the Institute of Independent Auditors of Brazil (Ibracon) regarding understanding the impacts of the new auditor's report, thus enabling the improvement and expansion of this mechanism. For the analysis, we use the event study methodology, which consists of evaluating how information influences the market in a particular period associated with the occurrence of a disclosure event. To do so, we used the variation in the sum of the daily abnormal returns of each company on the days that form part of the information disclosure window. The results of this paper indicate the consistency of the informative content of the financial statements with KAMs, insofar as the variation in the cumulative abnormal return of the companies analyzed is positively associated with the cumulative returns in the information disclosure window for the SFSs following the adoption of the new independent auditor's report. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature by presenting empirical evidence of the informational relevance of the content of the new audit report containing KAMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current paper analyzes the system of precedents in Brazil and examines the legal structure that links decisions to judged cases and to trends undersigned by the courts. A short historical context is forwarded on the formation of common law and the civil law system, the latter within the Brazilian legal structure. Doctrinal agreements on the system, especially with regard to the existence of a system of precedents in Brazil are compared. Many types of approaches are criticized. Bibliographic, legislative and jurisprudential research is employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper's objective is to analyze whether the capital structure of Brazilian publicly traded companies remained stable over the last twenty years. Originality/value: The paper is focused on the Brazilian capital market, in which there is a lack in the literature about the study of the leverage behavior and its immaturity, where factors related to the companies and characteristics in contracting leverage alter the demand of credit. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve its objective, initially a graphical analysis of market and book debt evolution was carried out, and a GMM-Sys regression model through panel data was estimated to identify the stability of leverage along time. Findings: The results indicate a reduction of the market leverage with higher statistical significance after 2008, indicating, both in the graphic and the regression analysis, that the use of debt was unstable in the first period analyzed (1995-2007), behavior not observed during the second period (2008-2015) when analyzed market measures in which capital structure stability was prevalent, with considerable reduction of corporate leverage, otherwise, book measures of leverage would have shown a stability trend in leverage patterns. The principal determinants of the capital structure were the tax benefits (book debt) and the size (market debt), supporting trade-off theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the period of the military dictatorship in Brazil, Amazon has become the focus through public and credit policies to privilege the interests of capital over traditional people (riverine people, fishermen, quilombolas, indigenous people), secular settled population, and other subjects (landless workers, those settled in agrarian reform projects). They are forcibly deterritorialized in this logic of integration of national and international capital in the exploration and production of commodities in this space. This paper aims to portray the recent perspective of the last two decades of territorialization process of international interest, with the inflow of large capital resources, such as mining and hydroelectric energy production. The methodology used was the case study, with interviews, documentary, and bibliography research. These enterprises, of great magnitude of socio-territorial transformations, tend to provoke a new process of deterritorialization of hundreds of families of rural workers, as in the case of those settled in agrarian reform projects, riverine people, quilombolas and indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper verified the relationship between shareholder activism and the elements of corporate governance and financial performance of selected Brazilian companies, articulating the agency theory and the voice concept from the exit, voice and loyalty theory. Methods: Activism was determined by a score constituted by the sum of its occurrences, observed in the minutes of the 2016 and 2017 general meetings of the 100 public companies in the sample. Governance and performance factors corresponded to 2015 and 2016, collected from Economática®. Quantile regressions (QR) were applied and the results were compared with ordinary least squares regressions (OLS). Results: there was a better adjustment of QR compared to the OLS method, suggesting that governance negatively affects activism and that its effects are heterogeneous in different parts of its distribution. Inconclusive results were obtained for performance variables. Robustness tests indicated better explanatory ability for activism observations in companies positioned in the last 20% of the activism indicator's distribution. Conclusion: significant evidence of a relationship between activism and governance was found, which does not occur conclusively in relation to performance, revealing the predominance of the first variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This teaching case addresses the digitization of the local social currency Palmas, issued since the beginning of the years 2000 as a paper currency by Banco Palmas, to a new hybrid model of mobile payments and mobile money, named E-Dinheiro. This is a social development and financial inclusion venture in Brazil, having already great national and international recognition. By telling the history of the community bank and some of its initiatives, this case intends to demonstrate the innovation process in a social fintech, addressing issues such as governance, platform management, information technology, business models and strategy. However, as its business model spreads to other community banks, new challenges emerge to ensure the growth and longevity of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to identify the factors that influence people’s behavior with regard to tax evasion practices in Brazil based on an analysis of the internal and external rewards. The study analyzes internal and external rewards as a determining factor of tax evasion, unlike other studies that have focused on analyzing economic and social factors. The topic is addressed from a contemporary perspective, based on a behavioral analysis of economic and social factors. The paper contributes with its conceptual refinement and assumptions that may strengthen the foundations for studying the factors that influence tax evasion. The data collection was carried out by means of a quasi-experiment followed by the application of a questionnaire, in the period from November of 2016 to September of 2017, in loco, with 800 data collection instruments in all the geographic regions of the country, 598 of which were validated. Measures were adopted to ensure the content, criteria, and construct validities. The reliability test resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.63 and the composite reliability was higher than 0.60. The data were analyzed based on descriptive statistics and using the binary logistic regression model. The results of this research illustrate, by means of the logistic regression analysis using a univariate approach, that external rewards – punishment – and internal rewards – self-concept, social norms, fiscal transparency, and cost of compliance – influence people’s dishonest behavior with regards to tax evasion practices in the sample studied. The study analyzes tax evasion based on an interdisciplinary approach, cooperating with the public administration in determining actions that can discourage evasion, by implementing strategies that include behavioral factors relating to the taxpayer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the relationships between the portfolio turnover and performance of equity investment funds in Brazil. There are few published studies on the subject, but the previously identified Brazilian studies that have examined making changes to portfolios have been limited to very restricted data samples and have only worked with an ordinary least squares (OLS) model without taking into account the indications of international studies and economic theory itself of the possible endogeneity of turnover, which would make OLS estimation inadequate. The expressive growth of the fund industry in the Brazilian market shows the relevance of the object of research. Two portfolio turnover metrics were analyzed: one based on changes in the monetary values of the assets and another based on changing the weights of the assets in the portfolio. The estimations were performed for fixed effects panel data and then for a two-stage least squares model, using instrumental variables. The funds that make up the sample are those classified as “free shares” in the period from January of 2012 to January of 2018. The results showed that there is a positive relationship between the portfolio turnover and performance of the equity investment funds, showing that managers have been able to take advantage of moments of mispricing in the market and that they carry out more trades in search of higher returns. This research extends the results in the literature as it shows that there is a positive relationship between the turnover and performance of equity investment funds that is independent of the way turnover or performance are measured, which has shown inconclusive results in previous studies. Furthermore, it presents evidence for a more representative and current sample in an emerging market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The ductus arteriosus is a small fetal structure that connects two large arteries (aorta and pulmonary) but becomes pathological when it is maintained after birth. Morbidities associated with persistent patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) may lead to the conclusion that the best approach is early surgical treatment. However, there is evidence that expectant (more selective) surgical management may reduce the chances of unnecessary surgeries and their risks. Objective: To analyze the clinical and surgical profile of preterm newborns submitted to selective correction surgery of the patent ductus arteriosus. Methods: This paper contemplates a series of cases, in which all patients submitted to the surgical treatment of PDA in preterm infants were described retrospectively (2009-2016), through the analysis of medical records of the Santa Marcelina Hospital, SP-Brazil. Results: During this period, there were 13 cases of premature infants who underwent selective surgical correction of PDA. Gestational age was 26.92 weeks, maternal age ranged from 15 to 44, birth weight varied between 650 and 1500g, mostly women (61.54%). The diameter of the ductus arteriosus ranged from 1.7 to 4.1 mm, four patients had complex congenital heart disease (30.77%). The median courses of indomethacin were 1.77, congestive heart failure was shown in 11 patients (84.62%), the median age at surgery was 27.69 days and the median duration of orotracheal intubation was 22.62 days. The weight of the newborns at the time of the surgical act varied between 900 and 1820g. The postoperative complications were mostly infectious, with nine patients with bronchopneumonia (69.23%), one patient had pneumothorax. Sepsis occurred in two cases (15.35%) that died due to the same complication (15.35%). Conclusion: All preterm newborns who underwent surgery had birth weight less than 1500g. The median arterial canal was 3.05 mm in diameter. The median gestational age was 26.92 weeks and 62% of the cases were female. The most frequent surgical technique was the triple clipping, there was no bleeding or reoperation in this series of cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies two aspects of the automobile insurance market in Brazil: first, it determines the degree of competition among insurance companies, and second, it estimates and analyzes the demand for automobile insurance. Most of the studies on the automobile insurance market in Brazil analyze the performance of the firms in this sector or present regional studies of the demand for insurance and its determinants. Thus, this study innovates both in showing the competition among the firms and estimating the demand for insurance in the country. The relevance of this research lies in the sequential and ordered way it analyzes the demand in a sector. Firstly, it identifies the type of competition that takes place in the sector and then, based on this, it proposes a structural framework based on optimizing decisions for estimating the price, income, and market power elasticities of demand. Furthermore, analyzing the insurance industry is of the utmost importance since it moves significant amounts of financial resources and provides an essential service in the economy. With information about the market structure and demand profile in the automobile insurance sector it is possible to propose strategic policies for individual firms as well as for the whole sector in order to introduce more efficiency. To analyze the degree of competitiveness, several concentration indices were calculated using annually-aggregated monthly data on the premium paid to all the automobile insurance firms in the period from 2001 to 2016. To estimate the demand for automobile insurance, half-yearly data from 2002 to 2010 for each one of the 27 federative units of Brazil were used. Two main findings are presented in this study. First, we find evidence of little concentration in the Brazilian automobile insurance market, with shares being well distributed among the players. Second, we estimate the demand for automobile insurance in Brazil and find a price-elasticity of -0.47 in the short run and -1.33 in the long run, while the lagged profitability has a negative impact on the amount insured: -0.21 in the short run and -0.59 in the long run. Income does not significantly influence the demand for insurance in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether the performance of credit unions that offer microcredit in Brazil was affected by the advent of Crescer - the National Microcredit Program. This research fills a gap in the literature because few papers investigate credit unions that work with microcredit and also the effects of governmental interventions related to microcredit operations. Studies of this type may help evaluate the impact of governmental interventions on the performance of the institutions that are directly or indirectly affected. Our results add to the debate about microcredit and about the inclusion of credit unions in this market. In particular, our evidence may influence the design of public policies and the strategies of microfinance institutions, which typically combine economic and social objectives. Based on the literature, we calculate fifteen indicators for each credit union, related to their financial and social performance. The inferences are based on the implementation of the difference in differences estimator using the advent of Crescer, in 2011, as the exogenous event of interest and including in the control group the credit unions that did not provide microcredit loans throughout the sample period. This research presents evidence that the volume of clients and microcredit operations performed by Brazilian credit unions was positively affected by regulatory changes that took place in 2011, consistently with the objectives of the governmental intervention. The evidence also suggests that the governmental intervention did not harm the financial sustainability of the credit unions. The main changes are: a substantial reduction of interest rates and transaction costs, the implementation of subsidies to participants in the program, and a push for public banks to enhance their supply of productive and oriented microcredit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the city of Belo Horizonte's experience building school infrastructure through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Between 2009 and 2015, Belo Horizonte built very similar schools using both PPPs and traditional public contracting (TPC). As the choice of mode of contracting was unrelated to our outcomes of interest, the experience constitutes a quasi-experiment that allows for a simple and direct comparison of PPPs to TPC. We examine construction- and operation-phase outcomes measured using administrative data and a survey of school administrators. We find that schools constructed under the PPP contracting model outperformed those built using TPCs in most outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, Brazil has more than 40,000 councils for managing public policies spread throughout towns. However, how are structured these spaces that constitute a broad participatory network for developing and implementing public policies? Having as a basis a classificatory model developed through theoretical approaches related to social participation, deliberative democracy, and legislative analysis, this exploratory paper identifies the main institutional characteristics concerning mandatory conformation, nature of the representation, composition, and decision-making capacity; and possible regional patterns in the implementation of the councils network. As a result, we identified that most councils do not have mandatory conformation. Nevertheless, there is a direct relationship between mandatory conformation and the implementation degree of municipal public policies. We also identified unique regional institutional conformation patterns: councils in the Northeast region are proportionately more balanced and deliberative than those in the South and Southeast regions. Finally, the cross-sectional data analysis points out a tendency for change in the institutional model of Brazilian councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a study with the goal of describing the diversity of Isotomidae (Collembola) of the State of São Paulo in southeastern Brazil. Paracerura Deharveng & Oliveira, 1994 comprises only 6 known species, all of which are restricted to Brazil. Three new species from the Atlantic Rainforest are described and illustrated, in addition an identification key for all of them is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the thematic of customer-centered quality in academic libraries and contribute to the importance of quality evaluations based on the perception of their customers for this type of library. It is especially important in Brazil, where evaluations of higher education institutions and their infrastructure items, including libraries, are compulsory. It highlights a specific methodology, the LibQUAL+®, created in the United States and used in hundreds of libraries around the world, but without any perceptible application in Brazil as yet. From the analysis of LibQUAL+® assessment procedures, the article aims to present the benefits that can be achieved from the application of this methodology as well as it intends to verify the possibilities of using it in academic libraries in Brazil. It concludes that the methodology presents aspects which can support the academic library management, as identifying strong and weak points of the services, becoming closer to the library's customers' needs, comparing the library performance with other libraries and defining the best practices in the field, besides contributing to a more professional management of the libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The river Tibagi from the city of Londrina, in the years 1970 and 1980 was a subject of much discussion and controversy due to the project of raising its waters to supply the population of the cities of Londrina and region. In articles published in newspapers, especially in the Folha de Londrina, in the 1970s and 1980s, it was identified that, this time, the perception emerged that the river was polluted. Thus, our primary goal in the first part of this research is to investigate how it came to creating this image. Therefore, we used a collection of newspaper clippings about the controversy raised from the waters Tibagi and interviews with Nelson Amanthea civil engineer and agronomist Marcos Antonio Castanheira, both participated in discussions on the project. It was in this period that the ideas of ecology was entered and began to circulate in the city in the late 1970s. In this context, the emergence of the "age of ecology", allegations and actions to combat pollution started to become more effective and broad, as well as, arose environmental associations, specialized government agencies and specific legislation. Thus, the objective of this research is also investigating the involvement of scientists and institutions in environmental issues through research of river Tibagi that became evident in the late 1980 and early next decade when the University State of Londrina initiated research in Tibagi river basin. Is emphasized the participation of members of the Department of Animal Biology and Plant - UEL, the company Klabin Pulp and Paper, Telêmaco Borba - PR and COPATI - Intermunicipal Consortium of Tibagi Basin, projects and actions in order to promote their recovery. A major action was investigated Project "Appearance of Fauna and Flora River Tibagi" which became known as "Project Tibagi ". In this sense sought to investigate the origins of the project, the main participants involved, their development, search results, the motivations that led the design to be closed and the relationship of scientists with the river. The main sources used were the newspaper Folha de Londrina and Notícias UEL; testimonials from researchers UEL and reports Tibagi Project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]