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Editorial

The fifth issue for 2017 of the Brazilian Journal of Public Administration puts together, once again, a series of work on evaluation of public policies. It is not by chance that programs like Bolsa Família continue to permeate the Brazilian research agenda. The program was responsible for mitigating some of the most negative effects of poverty still present in the country, and it was elaborated based on sophisticated managerial technology and complex federative arrangements. The article “Rules matter: determinants of bureaucratic control in the Bolsa Família Program” by Denilson Bandeira Coêlho and Antônio Sérgio Araújo Fernandes analyzes the role of federal and municipal bureaucracies in the management of this complex program, concluding that the effective application of rules was determinant to generate institutional learning among actors involved in this public policy. Another article, “The impact of the Bolsa Família Program on the duration of formal employment of people with low income”, by Danilo Braun Santos, Alexandre Ribeiro Leichsenring, Naercio Menezes Filho and Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva, examines the duration of employment among families who are beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program, indicating that the risk of termination of employment for beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program is between 7% and 10% lower than for non-beneficiaries. Our suggestion is to read these studies together with the articles published in issue 51, no. 2 (2017), co-edited with Professor Marcelo Neri. We hope that RAP will contribute to build a solid body of knowledge about important programs to combat poverty - an essential topic in a moment where a substantial part of the Brazilian population is returning to levels of extreme poverty.

Other studies published in this issue analyze important areas of the public policy agenda, such as the article “Environmental policy integration in Brazil: an analysis of climate and biodiversity policies”, by Flavia Donadelli. She discusses the importance and the current state of integration of environmental policies in the areas of climate change and biodiversity in Brazil, in light of the bureaucratic cultures of these areas and the role of political leaders. Changes in the management of oil revenues since the 1990s, the period of market-oriented reforms, to the new oil regulatory framework approved in 2010, are analyzed in the article “Ideas and economy in the policy reforms of the Brazilian oil sector: 1995 to 2010”, by Beni Trojbicz, identifying the dominant interests in each period and the role of international financial organizations. Another work evaluates “The volatility of S&T policy agenda in Brazil”, by Victor Pelaez, Noela Invernizzi, Marcos Paulo Fuck, Carolina Bagatolli and Moacir Rodrigues de Oliveira. This article evaluates the dependence of institutional paths that create obstacles in the construction of a long-term development model.

Other articles propose improvements in the process of evaluation of public policies through citizen participation, such as the article entitled “Procedural model in the evaluation of public policy through gamification”, by Ángel Torres-Toukoumidis, Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez, Ignacio Aguaded, Amor Pérez-Rodríguez and Yamile Sandoval.

Two articles focus on the efficiency of public resources: “Assessment of potential and use of the IPTU tax, based on the fuzzy set theory” by Kleber Pacheco de Castro and José Roberto Rodrigues Afonso, uses the fuzzy set theory and confirm what analysts and even municipal officials have long pointed out: most Brazilian municipalities do not use all their IPTU collection potential - a fact that tends to be more critical in smaller cities, which depend more on resources transferred from other spheres of government. The work “Determinants for compliance with budget and deadline in constructions for education purposes: an analysis of cities in Espírito Santo”, by Clarissa Vassem Campos and Fábio Moraes da Costa analyzes the determinants that contribute to explain the fulfillment of deadlines and prices in work in the education sector in the municipalities of the State of Espírito Santo, identifying characteristics that can help to increase the efficiency in the allocation of public resources.

Finally, two articles in this issue evaluate the area of education “The school environment and its performance: analysis of the scores obtained by schools from the state of Espírito Santo in the nationwide exam Prova Brasil, using multiple linear regression”, by Bruno Luiz Américo and Adonai José Lacruz, describes the relationship between the school “context” and “performance”, indicating the importance of the school “context”, as well as the “teacher”, as a way to reduce the effects of unfavorable family and social environment through school organization. The article “Relation between the government transfers, own tax collection and education index of the municipalities of the state of Minas Gerais”, by Cleyde Cristina Rodrigues Caetano, Lucimar Antônio Cabral de Ávila, Marcelo Tavares verifies the impact of financial resources in the quality of municipal education, inferring that there is no association between the degree of financial autonomy and investments in education. And, more importantly, the amount of revenues from tax and the additional percentage of investment in education do not impact the education index. Taken together, these two articles can help improve the impact of education policies.

In addition, we are excited to announce the workshop “RAP & YOUNG RESEARCHERS WORKSHOP: Overseas influences on the development and recent Innovations in public sector accounting and finance in Latin America”, by the Brazilian School of Business and Public Administration of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV/EBAPE), in partnership with the Regional Accounting Council of the State of Rio de Janeiro (CRCRJ) and with the Faculty of Administration and Finance of the State University of Rio de Janeiro, which will be held on 09 and 10 November 2017.

I wish you a pleasant read!

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    Sep-Oct 2017
Fundação Getulio Vargas Fundaçãoo Getulio Vargas, Rua Jornalista Orlando Dantas, 30, CEP: 22231-010 / Rio de Janeiro-RJ Brasil, Tel.: +55 (21) 3083-2731 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: rap@fgv.br