Building neural networks
Journal of Forecasting
V 25, N 1, 01/01/2006Timo Terasvirta, G. Rech, Marcelo Medeiros.
Browse the categories to access the content of academic, scientific and opinion publications of the professors and students of the Department of Economics PUC-Rio.
Journal of Forecasting
V 25, N 1, 01/01/2006Timo Terasvirta, G. Rech, Marcelo Medeiros.
Journal of Health Economics
V 25, N 5, 01/01/2006Rodrigo Reis Soares.
Journal of Population Economics
V 19, P 71-97, 01/01/2006Rodrigo Reis Soares.
Fixed Point Theory and Application
01/01/2006Juan Pablo Torres-Martínez.
American Economic Review
V 95, N 3, P 58-601, 01/06/2005This paper develops a model where reductions in mortality are the main force behind economic development. The model generates a pattern of changes similar to the demographic transition, where gains in life expectancy at birth are followed by reductions infertility and increases in the rate of human capital accumulation. The onset of the transition is characterized by a critical level of life expectancy at birth, which marks the movement of the economy from a Malthusian equilibrium to an equilibrium with investments in human capital and the possibility of long-run growth.
Rodrigo Reis Soares.
American Economic Review
V 95, N 1, P 277-291, 01/03/2005GDP per capita is usually used to proxy for the quality of life of individuals living in different countries. Welfare is also affected by quantity of life, however, as represented by longevity. This paper incorporates longevity into an overall assessment of the evolution of cross-country inequality and shows that it is quantitatively important. The absence of reduction in cross-country inequality up to the 1990s documented in previous work is in stark contrast to the reduction in inequality after incorporating gains in longevity. Throughout the post-World War II period, health contributed to reduce significantly welfare inequality across countries. This paper derives valuation formulas for infra-marginal changes in longevity and computes a "full" growth rate that incorporates the gains in health experienced by 96 countries for the period between 1960 and 2000. Incorporating longevity gains changes traditional results; countries starting with lower income tended to grow faster than countries starting with higher income. We estimate an average yearly growth in "full income" of 4.1 percent for the poorest 50 percent of countries in 1960, of which 1.7 percentage points are due to health, as opposed to a growth of 2.6 percent for the richest 50 percent of countries, of which only 0.4 percentage points are due to health. Additionally, we decompose changes in life expectancy into changes attributable to 13 broad groups of causes of death and three age groups. We show that mortality from infectious, respiratory, and digestive diseases, congenital, perinatal, and "ill-defined" conditions, mostly concentrated before age 20 and between ages 20 and 50, is responsible for most of the reduction in life expectancy inequality. At the same time, the recent effect of AIDS, together with reductions in mortality after age 50-due to nervous system, senses organs, heart and circulatory diseases-contributed to increase health inequality across countries.
Gary S. Becker , Tomas J. Philipson, Rodrigo Reis Soares.
Economics and Politics
V 17, N 1, P 1-35, 01/03/2005This study uses a cross-country panel to examine the determinants of corruption, paying particular attention to political institutions that increase accountability. Even though the theoretical literature has stressed the importance of political institutions in determining corruption, the empirical literature is relatively scarce. Our results confirm the role of political institutions in determining the prevalence of corruption. Democracies, parliamentary systems, political stability, and freedom of press are all associated with lower corruption. Additionally, common results of the previous empirical literature, related to openness and legal tradition, do not hold once political variables are taken into account.
Daniel Lederman , Norman V. Loayza, Rodrigo Reis Soares.
Rand Journal of Economics
V 35, N 2, P 245-259, 01/06/2004Luigi Zingales, Walter Novaes.
Journal of Development Economics
V 73, N 1, P 155-185, 01/01/2004This paper analyzes the determinants of the heterogeneity in crime rates across countries,
focusing on reporting rates and development. The behavior of the reporting rate is studied by
comparing data from victimization surveys to official records. Reporting rates are strongly
correlated with development: richer countries report a higher fraction of crimes. The positive
relation between development and crime found in previous studies is shown to result from this
correlation. Once the presence of the reporting error is accounted for, development does not affect
crime. Reductions in inequality and increases in growth and education are associated with
reductions in crime rates.
Rodrigo Reis Soares.
Journal of Business
V 76, P 49-81, 01/01/2003Walter Novaes.
Economía: Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association
V 4, N 1, P 165-222, 01/01/2003Gustavo Gonzaga.
Journal of Finance
V 57, N 6, P 2619-2650, 01/01/2002Walter Novaes.
Journal of Business
V 74, P 79-100, 01/01/2001Kathrin Dewenter, Dick Petway, Walter Novaes.
Journal of Development Economics
V 47, P 135-154, 01/01/1995Walter Novaes, Sergio Werlang.