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Changes in land use due to deforestation and agriculture practices are the main responsible the Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) in Brazil. Cattle farming plays a major role, because the activity in the country is still largely extensive and has been one of the main threats to the preservation of the Amazon forest. In the COP 21, Brazil committed to reduce GHG emissions by almost 40% until 2020, and the agriculture sector would contributed with more than half of this goal. One main strategy is the intensification of pasture-based cattle ranching: ranchers may produce more on the land they already use. A second main strategy is the integration crop-livestock systems (iCL), which can increase agricultural production and rehabilitate degraded pastures while mitigating GHG emissions. But both strategies require investments, which may discourage most farmers. The paper recently presented at the Brazilian Economics Meeting (ANPEC 2018) highlights how the access to credit, which is still restricted in Brazil, may largely increase the adoption of iCL.

Do we receive a salary that is equal to our labor productivity? Classic labor economics assumes so, once labor demand equals labor supply. But imperfect competition, triggered, for example, by information assymetries and institutional factors, may clearly distort this relation. The paper recently published by Alexandre Gori Maia and Arthur Sakamoto (Texas A&M University) at the Brazilian Journal of Political Economy compares the relation between wages and labor productivity for different categories of workers in Brazil and in the United States. 

The Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), at Columbia University, hosted the seminar entitled “Migration and Political Development in Brazil”, presented by Alexandre Gori Maia. The seminar discussed how social networks shaped by internal migration flows have affected the political development in Brazil. The study developed by Alexandre Gori and Yao Lu (Columbia University) shows how migration increases electoral competition and the political participation of those left behind.

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Cash transfers have been the most traditional policy to fight poverty and inequality in developing countries. These programs provide a small amout of income for poor families, sometimes imposing conditionatilies such as health and education commitments. An additional source of income will naturally reduce the budget contraints of beneficiary families. But how beneficiaries feel about the improvements in their lives? The paper recently published by Daniel Morales Marinez and Alexandre Gori Maia at the Journal of Family and Economic Issues analyzed the case of the Colombian Mas Familias en Acción. The authors show that transfers tend to increase the self-reported perceptions of poverty and income insufficiency. Cash transfers do not provide a stable source of income and the beneficiaries clearly recognizes their social vulnerability. But the benefits of conditionalities on health and education, which link the transfers to investments in human capital, are largely recognize by beneficiary families. 

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Roughly 70% of São Paulo's territory is dedicated to agriculture, which has suffered increasing threats from climate change, especially through prolonged droughts and increasing instability. Agronomic adaptions and investments in new technologies have been the main strategy to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The paper recently published by Alexandre Gori Maia, Bruno Miyamoto and Junior Garcia at the journal Ecological Economics highlights how the benefits of adaptation may differ substantially according to the provision of ecosystem services. In other words, technologies may be necessary but not sufficient to mitigate the impacts of climate change on agricultural development. This is particularly true because degraded areas can disrupt important ecosystem services, such as the surface water balance, compromising the adoption of irrigation systems. 

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