This report, developed under the World Bank’s technical assistance program “Financial and Private Sector Development Policies for Fostering Sustainable Growth in Brazil,” examines strategies for strengthening disaster risk financing in response to floods. It provides an overview of federal...

This report examines the design and implementation of Devolve ICMS, a state-level personalized value added tax (VAT) cashback program in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, through the lens of the World Bank’s G2Px framework. Using administrative data, a representative beneficiary survey, and...

Local content policies (LCPs) are key instruments of industrial policy used by middle-income countries (MICs) to capture segments of global value chains (GVCs). While, in principle, LCPs are very similar, in practice, they are highly diverse. What to prioritize, how to measure it, while...

We estimate the impact of infrastructure investment on conflict using 163 hydroelectric dams in Brazil (2002–2022). Leveraging the staggered rollout of construction in a difference-in-differences framework, we find that dams trigger sharp, temporary surges in land invasions, water disputes,...

Empirical studies of racial wage disparities typically rely on self-reported race and treat racial categories as fixed. This paper shows that racial classification in the labor market is produced by social perception, and that modeling this perception process is essential for measuring wage...

The opportunistic use of insider information generates adverse effects on capital markets, making its mitigation through robust corporate governance practices. This research analyzes the corporate governance mechanisms that reduce the signs of opportunistic insider trading, grounded in the...

How do import tariffs affect employment? We develop an empirical strategy to identify the effects of tariffs using difference-in-differences, comparing anti-dumping (AD) investigations resulting in dumping tariffs to those not resulting in dumping tariffs. We find that an AD tariff decreases...

We study the causal effect of maternal criminal victimization on child health using linked police reports and birth records from Brazil. Focusing on robbery and theft - everyday crimes not involving physical injury - we show that victimization during pregnancy increases low birthweight by 6.9...

This paper studies how improvements in regulatory information systems affect credit allocation in rural financial markets. In 2021, the Central Bank of Brazil introduced major enhancements to the Rural Credit Bureau, first by integrating geospatial data on borrowers’ plots with national...

The rise of fintech lenders has intensified competition in the banking industry. This study utilizes Brazilian bank-level data to examine the causal impact of increased competition on commercial banks’ lending rates and profitability. Employing a bank-specific Bartik exposure, constructed from...

Does industrial activity drive deforestation and land degradation, and can limited state capacity be overcome to decouple economic growth from environmental harm? We examine these questions in the context of slaughterhouse plant openings in Brazil from 1994 to 2019. Guided by a simple conceptual...

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes aim to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty by fostering human capital accumulation among children in vulnerable households. However, due to data limitations, evidence on their long-run effects remains scarce. This paper contributes to...

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is an internationally known tool for organizing and governing marine spaces and activities, economic or otherwise, carried out in these spaces. Being a public process of mapping and analyzing the maritime area that involves multiple interests, actors and factors, it...

This paper examines whether monetary policy shocks affect CO₂ emissions over time in Brazil. We show that CO₂ emissions decline persistently following contractionary monetary policy shocks. The relationship between monetary policy and CO₂ emissions in Brazil is assessed through two...

We estimate the long-term intergenerational mobility (IM) in Brazil, by mesoregion, utiliz ing the methodology developed by Güell, Mora and Telmer (2015) and Güell et al. (2018). Benefiting from the unique features of Brazil, such as data availability on income, edu cation, full names, our...

This study examines the relationship between financial risk tolerance and organizational resilience among small business managers in the Brazilian Northeast, a region strongly affected by economic fragility and intensified uncertainty during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a positivist,...

Context: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has accelerated the integration of automation technologies into the world of work, raising important questions about the future of Vocational Education and Training (VET). While existing literature has primarily focused on the labor market impacts of...

Os gastos com transporte constituem uma parte expressiva dos orçamentos públicos municipais no Brasil. Tradicionalmente concentrados em investimentos de capital voltados à infraestrutura viária, os recursos têm sido progressivamente redirecionados para o custeio da operação dos sistemas...

A diversificação dos mecanismos de garantia no Brasil é essencial para atrair investimentos privados em infraestrutura. Garantias sólidas aumentam a segurança jurídica e reduzem o risco percebido por atores privados, facilitando a entrada de novos investidores e financiadores...

This note describes the Devolve-ICMS program, an innovative VAT cashback initiative aimed at refunding taxes to low-income households in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Using administrative records, the authors document several stylized facts about the workings of the program. First,...

This research investigates the potential impact of adopting electric vehicles (EVs) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The aim is to evaluate the extent to which varying EV adoption rates can contribute to emissions reductions. A systematic literature...

An intriguing question regarding the relationship between international financial institutions (IFIs) and their Latin American borrowers concerns how and why regime type influences the degree to which the parties are prepared to sign loan agreements. Some scholars highlight a 'democratic...

This paper examines the impact of racial concordance between mothers and healthcare providers on childbirth practices and health outcomes in Brazilian public hospitals. Using a novel dataset linking patients and providers across 15 million births, we compare deliveries where providers and...

How do minimum wages affect informality? We study the near-doubling of the real minimum wage from 2000 to 2009 in Brazil, where 46% of the workforce is informal. Using labor force surveys covering the informal sector, we show the minimum wage exhibits near full passthrough to informal employees...

How do minimum wages affect informality? We study the near-doubling of the real minimum wage from 2000 to 2009 in Brazil, where 46% of the workforce is informal. Using labor force surveys covering the informal sector, we show the minimum wage exhibits near full passthrough to informal employees...

This study provides an overview of the status of international climate negotiations ahead of the climate change conference in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025. It covers the key topics under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, namely the...

This study provides an overview of the status of international climate negotiations ahead of the climate change conference in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025. It covers the key topics under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, namely the...