According to Portfolio Theory, by combining assets that show a correlation inferior to one (1) among their individual returns, it becomes possible to create portfolios that reduce risk without damaging expected return. Crop and livestock futures contracts and company stocks show such a characteristic, which signals potential benefits when forming portfolios combining these two types of assets. This investment strategy is not often utilized in Brazil. The purpose of our research was to assess whether such an asset combination is actually advantageous to those creating investment portfolios in the Brazilian market. Our evaluation used instruments of analysis developed by Markowitz in Portfolio Theory and data about the return from crop and livestock futures contracts and stocks. The data was gathered from the Brazilian Futures and Commodities Exchange (BM&F) and Brazil’s National Association of Open Market Institutions (ANDIMA) between July 1994 and December 1998. The results of this work showed that the combination of these two types of assets in investment portfolios can be an interesting portfolio management alternative.

This study characterizes the use of risk monitoring mechanisms by coffee and soybean trading and processing companies. It also investigates the role these mechanisms play in the mitigation of certain transaction costs associated to bounded rationality, information asymmetry, and business opportunism in negotiations involving derivatives. The results presented are based on literature and original research, which consisted of interviews with 19 coffee and soybean trading and processing company agents that deal with the management and execution of derivatives trades. The interviews suggest that the interest in formal risk monitoring mechanisms depends strongly on the organizational structure of the business. In family businesses, in which the owner participates actively in negotiations, the interest is limited. In non-family businesses, where there is a clear separation between supervisory upper-management and agents involved with trading, the interest in risk monitoring systems is more evident. This result seems to indicate that the mitigation of transaction costs associated with information asymmetry and opportunism might be stronger motivations for interest in risk monitoring mechanisms than the costs resulting from bounded rationality.

This work evaluates the economic efficiency of productive resource utilization in the cultivation of soybeans in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The study area comprises the states main soybean producing counties. Economic efficiency was estimated for a sample of 151 soybean producers through the production frontier function. The producers in the states northern region are operating near the established production frontier, signaling a favorable tendency in resource reallocation and achieving efficiency.

The work analyzes the political/institutional links and technological formats of agroforestry systems in the Caí and Taquari river valleys of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in an effort to determine a value for their ability to endure: their sustainability. Sustainability indicators are created for the analysis of these systems. The indicator values will be used to create a Sustainability Index (SI) for each studied agroforestry system and to identify each systems sustainability pattern. The different agroforestry systems will also be classified according to their structural characteristics. Analysis of the identified patterns and indexes will reveal the adequacy of the methodology employed and the consequence of each systems institutional arrangement, technological format, and sustainability pattern. The agro forestry system that combines exotic forest species with watermelon and the system that combines native forest species with citrus fruit stand out as being most sustainable while, from an institutional perspective, those systems that were linked in an "associative" arrangement had the highest sustainability index values.

Focusing on changes in agricultural policy, this paper examines the economic impacts on MERCOSUL member country economies arising from the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and a free trade area between MERCOSUL and the European Union (MERCOEURO). Four simulations are run using the Global Trade Analysis Projects (GTAP) applied general equilibrium model. The results suggest these new trade alliances would cause an increase in MERCOSUL agribusiness production and a decrease in MERCOSUL manufactures production. In all simulations, agricultural trade flows are greatly altered and the exportation of MERCOSUL agribusiness products expands. However, the MERCOSUL countries experience overall economic growth in only the MERCOEURO scenarios. The elimination of agriculture production and export subsidies by members of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and European Union (E.U.) would have strong economic impacts on the economies of MERCOSUL countries.

O estudo visa analisar as operações de cross hedge do bezerro na Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros (BM&F) com o intuito de avaliar a real necessidade da existência de contratos futuros para este animal. Para tanto, foram calculados o risco de base destas operações, as razões de hedge ótimas e as efetividades nas principais praças de comercialização de gado bovino do país entre setembro de 1995 e fevereiro de 2001. As mesmas análises foram realizadas para o hedge do boi gordo. A razão de hedge ótima se mostrou elevada no cross hedge (entre 37% e 49%) e no own hedge (entre 58% e 63%). Quanto à efetividade, constatou-se que no caso do own hedge, o risco de preço pode ser reduzido em cerca de 50% com a tomada de posição em contratos futuros na proporção de hedge ótima. No entanto, para o cross hedge, a efetividade foi bastante baixa - cerca de 1,5%. Isso se deve ao alto risco de base destas operações, aproximadamente 80% superior ao risco associado ao hedge do boi gordo nas semanas de vencimento dos contratos considerados neste período. Dessa forma, os resultados demonstram o acerto da BM&F quanto ao recente lançamento do contrato de bezerro.

Nos últimos anos o debate sobre desenvolvimento do espaço rural recebeu significativas contribuições que apontam para a crescente importância das atividades rurais não-agrícolas em relação às atividades agrícolas, para os estabelecimentos da agricultura brasileira, em particular, a chamada agricultura familiar. Com o objetivo de contribuir para este debate analisamos as informações disponíveis relativas à chamada indústria rural artesanal, uma atividade rural nãoagrícola. Este estudo pioneiro mostrou, entre outros fatos: que as atividades relacionadas à indústria rural artesanal são importantes para o abastecimento do mercado interno no que tange a muitos produtos; que estão fortemente presentes nas unidades de produção agrícolas, particularmente naquelas de base familiar; que a contribuição média destas atividades para a geração de emprego e receita monetária é significativamente superior àquela proporcionada pelos produtos da agricultura tradicional. Estes fatos indicam que o fomento de atividades relacionadas à indústria rural artesanal pode ter importante contribuição no desenvolvimento do espaço rural brasileiro.

The work analyzes the political/institutional links and technological formats of agroforestry systems in the Caí and Taquari river valleys of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in an effort to determine a value for their ability to endure: their sustainability. Sustainability indicators are created for the analysis of these systems. The indicator values will be used to create a Sustainability Index (SI) for each studied agroforestry system and to identify each system’s sustainability pattern. The different agroforestry systems will also be classified according to their structural characteristics. Analysis of the identified patterns and indexes will reveal the adequacy of the methodology employed and the consequence of each system’s institutional arrangement, technological format, and sustainability pattern. The agro forestry system that combines exotic forest species with watermelon and the system that combines native forest species with citrus fruit stand out as being most sustainable while, from an institutional perspective, those systems that were linked in an "associative" arrangement had the highest sustainability index values.

This study characterizes the use of risk monitoring mechanisms by coffee and soybean trading and processing companies. It also investigates the role these mechanisms play in the mitigation of certain transaction costs associated to bounded rationality, information asymmetry, and business opportunism in negotiations involving derivatives. The results presented are based on literature and original research, which consisted of interviews with 19 coffee and soybean trading and processing company agents that deal with the management and execution of derivatives trades. The interviews suggest that the interest in formal risk monitoring mechanisms depends strongly on the organizational structure of the business. In family businesses, in which the owner participates actively in negotiations, the interest is limited. In non-family businesses, where there is a clear separation between supervisory upper-management and agents involved with trading, the interest in risk monitoring systems is more evident. This result seems to indicate that the mitigation of transaction costs associated with information asymmetry and opportunism might be stronger motivations for interest in risk monitoring mechanisms than the costs resulting from bounded rationality.

Diversos estudos têm sugerido que a estabilidade de preços distribui benefícios entre grupos na sociedade. Este trabalho analisa a distribuição de benefícios decorrentes da estabilização dos preços agrícolas decorrentes do Plano Real, implementado em 1994, entre os consumidores da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. Estimou-se uma medida de instabilidade de séries de preços de 19 produtos agrícolas importantes na alimentação, entre 1989 e 1998 para testar a eficiência do Plano Real em estabilizar preços. Para calcular a distribuição dos benefícios da estabilização entre consumidores estratificados segundo o nível de renda, estimou-se, inicialmente, o coeficiente de distribuição dos gastos com alimentação. Em seguida, os coeficientes de distribuição do conjunto de dezenove produtos agrícolas importantes na dieta das famílias. Os dados de orçamentos familiares são da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares do IBGE, de 1996, e as séries de preços dos produtos agrícolas são do Instituto de Economia Agrícola. Os resultados indicaram que, no agregado, os benefícios da estabilização dos preços dos alimentos favoreceram relativamente mais os consumidores de baixa renda. Entretanto, o exame individual dos produtos sugere que os consumidores dos estratos de renda mais alta são proporcionalmente mais benefeciados com a estabilização dos preços dos produtos de elevada elasticidade-renda da demanda