Despite the fact that after the second half of the 1990s studies of financial exclusion have gained strength among the studies about poverty and regional and social inequalities, a few studies about this problem had appear in the Brazilian economic literature. The present work contributes to the...

This paper aims to provide insights for the development of a study based on utilization rates on health services. The following topics are addressed: (1) the motivation for the study of health services utilization rates ; (2) utilization rates of public health services in light of demographic...

This article examines the evolution of retirement in Brazil and its old-age support programs (public pension). The key objective is to show that given the current trend in population and size of the programs, their sustainability in the near future may be endangered. In this paper, we also...

The Bolsa Família Program is a Conditional Cash Transfer Program that was implemented in Brazil in 2003. Since the implementation of the program some of its effects were studied, but its effects on fertility decision has drawn a little attention. The objective of this paper is to evaluate if...

The aim of this paper is to discuss the idea that knowledge externalities, as discussed in the Endogenous Growth Theory, can be spread over any kind of space. Although this point has already been discussed by some scholars in the heterodox tradition (Nelson, 1998, Martin and Sunley, 1998, among...

One important question that has been discussed in the literature about regional economics is the relevance of local productive networks (clusters) for the regional development. It is possible to find a huge number of case studies that discuss many aspects of this kind of network: cooperation,...

There are in the literature on both industrial and regional economics many studies on local productive arrangements. Indeed, this kind of industrial/regional organization has become an important piece in the implementation of industrial, regional and technological policies. Accordingly, a...