https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/18969 2026-09-21T04:09:27Z 2026-09-21T04:09:27Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/50167 2026-09-10T06:20:58Z 2026-06-30T00:00:00Z

Title: Índices de percepção da formação superior: dimensões formativas e trajetórias acadêmicas no Brasil Abstract: This thesis investigates students’ perceptions of higher education and their relationships with academic trajectories in Brazilian higher education. The study is based on the understanding that administrative records allow the monitoring of admission, enrollment, persistence, completion, and dropout, but do not directly capture how students evaluate the formative conditions experienced throughout undergraduate education. The general objective is to construct and analyze Higher Education Perception Indices, based on the Student Questionnaire of the National Student Performance Examination, and to examine their associations with course characteristics, student composition, access and support policies, and academic trajectory indicators followed over time. The research combines information from the National Student Performance Examination and the Higher Education Census, considering bachelor’s and licentiate degree programs organized by fields of education. The construction of the indices uses exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, organizing students’ perceptions into three dimensions: course, teaching, and institutional conditions. The thesis then estimates fractional response models with a temporal structure and Mundlak parametrization, complemented by Tobit estimations, and relates the lagged average index to future changes in persistence, annual completion, and annual dropout rates. The results indicate that the indices show empirical consistency and capture differences across fields, territories, and institutional legal status. The institutional dimension concentrates relatively less favorable perceptions, while perceptions of the course are associated with student composition, the organization of provision, and access and support policies. In the temporal analysis, the most regular associations occur with persistence, whereas completion and dropout show more heterogeneous relationships. The thesis concludes that students’ perceptions, when organized into synthetic measures and linked to administrative records, provide complementary information for understanding formative inequalities and academic trajectories in Brazilian higher education.

2026-06-30T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48530 2026-03-11T06:27:58Z 2026-02-11T00:00:00Z

Title: Ensaios em Finanças Públicas: Um Enfoque nas Despesas por Função de Governo Abstract: This thesis investigates how the functional composition of public expenditures influences economic performance, fiscal dynamics, and the territorial organization of public spending. Based on the premise that the effects of the State do not derive solely from the total volume of resources but mainly from the way these resources are distributed across different budgetary functions, the study articulates evidence at three levels of analysis: international, national, and municipal. At the international level, the relationship between public expenditures classified according to the COFOG system and GDP per capita is analyzed using a panel of 74 advanced and emerging countries between 2010 and 2019 through panel data models estimated via system GMM. The results highlight the relevance of environmental protection and health expenditures for economic growth, while spending on public order/safety and economic affairs shows a negative relationship with economic activity. At the national level, the dynamic relationship between revenues and expenditures of the Brazilian central government is investigated using bimonthly data from 2009 to 2024, employing ARDL and NARDL models combined with cointegration tests. The results indicate a long-run relationship between revenue collection and several expenditure functions, a predominance of the spend–revenue hypothesis, the presence of asymmetries in fiscal adjustments, and a relevant influence of financial expenditures in the dissociation of the long-run fiscal equilibrium. At the municipal level, the dynamics of per capita public expenditures between 2015 and 2024 are analyzed by combining spatial econometrics and convergence tests. The results reveal stable positive spatial autocorrelation, the absence of national convergence, and the formation of two convergence clubs, indicating that municipal fiscal inequalities reflect persistent spatial structuring and institutional heterogeneity.

2026-02-11T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/47237 2025-10-02T06:25:56Z 2025-08-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Ensaios sobre política fiscal: expectativas, dívida pública e câmbio Abstract: This thesis investigates issues related to fiscal policy in Brazil, with a focus on its interaction with monetary policy, market expectations, and the exchange rate. The study is structured into three essays. The first essay conducts an empirical analysis of the demand for Letra Financeira do Tesouro (LFTs) in relation to the Central Bank’s repo operations, employing ARDL, DOLS, and FMOLS models. The study explores how these instruments interact within the framework of Brazilian monetary policy and public debt. Thus, the objective of this essay is to empirically analyze the determinants of the behavior of demand for LFTs relative to the demand for the securities underlying the Central Bank of Brazil’s repo operations. The econometric results suggest that LFTs exhibit a long-term relationship that is inversely associated with repo operations and exchange rate fluctuations, while positively associated with the expansion of the public debt stock. Therefore, the volume of LFTs demanded depends on the behavior of these other variables. The second essay analyzes the role of fiscal policy and expectations in the Brazilian economy from a Keynesian and post-keynesian perspective. This approach integrates both a theoretical review and econometric analysis. Accordingly, the objective of this essay is, on the one hand, to examine the theoretical contributions of Keynes and the post-keynesians regarding the role of fiscal policy in the formation of expectations and, on the other hand, to provide empirical evidence on the impacts of fiscal variables on economic expectations during the period from January 2008 to May 2025. To achieve these objectives, VAR/VEC econometric models are employed, whose empirical results converge with the theoretical debate and prior empirical studies on the subject, suggesting that the economic uncertainty index, which captures market expectations, is influenced by fiscal variables such as public debt and the primary balance. Finally, the third essay investigates the relationship between fiscal dominance and the exchange rate in Brazil from 2003 to 2025, following the approach proposed by Blanchard (2004) for open economies. The research combines theoretical review and empirical analysis of the coordination between fiscal and monetary policies. The objective of this essay is to analyze whether fiscal dominance was present in Brazil during the period from January 2008 to May 2025, considering an open economy with free capital mobility. The results suggest that the behavior of the real effective exchange rate in Brazil appears to be relatively insensitive to fiscal policy, in terms of both the primary balance and public debt, over the period analyzed. In the Keynesian and post-keynesian tradition, however, other factors condition the behavior of the exchange rate in Brazil, such as international liquidity conditions and the real flows of goods and services between the domestic economy and the rest of the world.

2025-08-29T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/46469 2025-07-24T06:16:24Z 2025-06-27T00:00:00Z

Title: Ensaios sobre dilemas da regulação econômica por agências no saneamento básico brasileiro Abstract: This dissertation investigates whether the establishment of regulatory agencies in Brazil’s basic sanitation sector is necessary and beneficial. The analysis begins by acknowledging the sector’s structural deficits and institutional challenges, and examines whether economic regulation—particularly through autonomous agencies—contributes to improving service provision. After discussing the economic characteristics of the sector and the history of public policies, the thesis applies empirical approaches to evaluate the effects of regulation on performance and public health indicators. The findings suggest that regulatory agencies have limited and often statistically insignificant effects. Furthermore, the decision to create these agencies does not always reflect the public interest and may be driven by strategic motivations. The research also highlights the weakness of external control mechanisms, such as municipal sanitation councils, which tend to operate ineffectively. The conclusion is that while regulation remains relevant, its effectiveness depends on institutional conditions and the strength of supervisory instruments.

2025-06-27T00:00:00Z