CPP. Center for Public Policies 2009 YEARBOOK ACTIVITIES AND STUDIES

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1 CPP Center for Public Policies 2009 YEARBOOK ACTIVITIES AND STUDIES

2 Council Claudio L. S. Haddad Naercio Aquino Menezes Filho Rinaldo Artes Marcos Lisboa Board of Directors President - Claudio L. S. Haddad Director - Naercio Aquino Menezes Filho Associate Professors Carlos Alberto Furtado de Melo Eduardo de Carvalho Andrade Mauricio Soares Bugarin Regina Carla Madalozzo Rodrigo Menon Simões Moita

3 About CPP (Center for Public Policies) The CPP (Center for Public Policies) was established based on the ideals of the IFB (Future Brazil Institute), a research institute focused on the production of studies about the Brazilian economy, to encourage the debate about public policy in the country. From February 2 nd, 2009 on, all the activities conducted by IFB were taken over by the Public Policies Center, which became a part of Insper Research and Education Institute. CPP's President is Claudio L. S. Haddad, and Naercio A. Menezes Filho is the Director. CPP's purpose is developing research and arranging seminars and debates around public policy to contribute to social and economic progress in Brazil. In order to achieve that, we carry on technical studies to analyze and elaborate economic policies. Although they are meant to be presented in accessible language, such studies are thoroughly based upon theoretical and empirical knowledge and they are available online so as to reach a wide group of readers. With the purpose of broadening the knowledge and deepening the debate about important issues regarding the Brazilian economy, CPP interacts with research and education centers, as well as with other relevant institutions. Ever since its creation, CPP has carried out a number of highly important seminars for deliberations about new public policy projects in the city of São Paulo. There were also debates about economical issues of immediate interest with renowned professionals and direct participation of the students. Furthermore, studies were developed, such as a Survey about Health with PNAD from 1998 and 2003 and the paper "Comparing Top and Worst- Ranked Schools Based on SARESP and Prova Brasil Scores in São Paulo". In 2010, the Public Policies Center will keep on arranging seminars, studies and debates about crucial topics to guide public policies in Brazil. We would like to thank in advance every partner, contributor and person who supports CPP, and we hope to be able to improve, somehow, education, safety and health services in our country. CPP Staff

4 SEMINARS Seminar: The Evolution of Victimization in São Paulo between 2003 and 2008 The seminar "The Evolution of Victimization in São Paulo between 2003 and 2008", on March 16 th, was the first event in CPP and presented never before seen results of the study about the progression of violence in the city. The study points out the progression of violence in São Paulo within this period using data about criminal activities like swindle, verbal abuse, assault, traffic violations, offense against the person, motor vehicle theft and home burglary. In addition to the involvement of CPP's coordinator Naercio Menezes Filho, Ipsos Public Affairs Global's director Paulo Cidade, political scientist Leandro Piquet (USP), economist João Manoel Pinho de Mello (PUC-RJ), Denis Mizne (Instituto Sou da Paz), Vanessa Barros (Instituto de Segurança Pública do RJ) and Colonel Izau Segalla (São Paulo Police Department) also took part in the seminar. The dean and president of Insper Research and Education Institute, Claudio Haddad, opened the event. Seminar: The Progression of Victimization in SP between 2003 and 2008

5 Seminar: Quality in Brazilian Public Schools The second event brought about by the Public Policies Center was the seminar " Quality in Brazilian Public Schools", along with the launch of the website "Comparing Brazilian Public Schools Ratings", with the partner Itaú BBA, on June 19 th. It featured the presentations of the studies "Comparing Top and Worst-Ranked Schools Based on SARESP and Prova Brasil Scores", by CPP's coordinator Naercio Menezes Filho; "Understanding Racial Differences in Report Cards: Teacher's Proficiency, Behavior and Perceptions", by Marcos Rangel, professor of Economics at USP and University of Chicago; and "Assessment of the Project Jovem do Futuro (or Future Youth)", by Wanda Engel, from Instituto Unibanco. Maria Helena Castro, from Unicamp, and Vladimir Ponczek, from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, were also involved in the event, not to mention Insper's president Claudio Haddad, who, once more, opened the function. Public Policies Center Quality of Brazilian Public Schools

6 Seminar: The Classroom Practices In early August, on the 4 th, there was the seminar "Classroom Practices ", promoted by Fundação Lemann in a partnership with Insper's Public Policies Center. On the occasion, the economist Martin Carnoy, from Stanford University, released his book "Cuba's Academic Advantage" which compares classrooms in Brazil, Chile and Cuba and presented its main topics. This seminar and debate session gathered specialists, researchers and education management professionals interested in the work from which the book stemmed. The purpose of such work was to understand why Cuban students' performances are superior to other Latin- American students' in UNESCO's evaluations. With this seminar, CPP meant to get information about teaching methods in other countries and make them known, so as to signal what can and must be changed in the Brazilian educational system. Seminar: The Magic Carpet Ride On September 29 th, we had the seminar "The Magic Carpet Ride", with Professor Victor Lavy, one of the top development, education and job market researchers in the world. He is a William Haber chaired professor at the Hebrew University, professor at the University of London, associated to several research centers in the USA and in Europe, and has published a wide range of articles on top specialized international publications. During the seminar, he presented a study about the long-term effects of operation "Magic Carpet", in which about 50,000 illiterate immigrants from Yemen were taken to Israel and lodged in different parts of the country. The research shows what happens to them and to their descendants 60 years later the changes in education, number of children, work and income, depending on the place where they settled when they went to Israel. The event's opening was presided by the research coordinator at the Public Policies Center, Naercio Menezes Filho.

7 CPP DEBATES With the purpose of furthering discussions on current economic Brazilian issues and bringing such issues closer to the students at Insper, the Public Policies Center arranged a series of three debates in the second half of 2009, with specialists' speeches and discussions between participants and students. On August 27 th, the 1 st debate, "Corruption, Institutions and Progress", took place. The Center's research coordinator Naercio Aquino Menezes Filho, FGV's Economics course coordinator Marcos Fernandes and Transparência Brasil's president Eduardo Capobianco were the participants. The 2 nd debate, on September, 22 nd, was "Pre-salt". The participants were Insper's President Claudio Haddad and Julio Sérgio Gomes de Almeida, professor at Unicamp, former secretary of Economic Policy for the National Treasury and former executive director at IEDI (Institute for Studies in Industrial Development). The third and last debate of the semester in 2009 happened on November 12 th, and the theme was "Exchange of Currency". Associate Professor at USP Fábio Kanczuk, and EPGE's professor and IBRE-FGV's researcher Samuel de Abreu Pessôa debated the issue. CPP PROJECTS Website Launch: "Comparing Grades in Brazilian Public Schools" On June 19 th, 2009, during the seminar "The Level of Quality in Brazilian Public Schools", the website "Comparing Grades in Brazilian Public Schools" was launched. It was created by CPP, in partnership with Itaú BBA. This public school grades city-by-city comparison aims to make it easier for families to decide on a

8 school for their children. The site displays a comparison of grades in the state of São Paulo among public schools that took 2007 SARESP and 2008 SARESP (SARESP is a system for student performance assessment). Besides, it is also possible to compare grades in public schools all over Brazil, as long as the schools participated of 2005 and 2007 Prova Brasil. For easier browsing, the search filters enable visitors to compare schools by city, neighborhood and year. Moreover, the results can be ranked by school name, by GPA in Portuguese or Mathematics in every grade and by year. Public Policies Center SARESP Statistics CPP STUDIES The Public Policies Center not only promoted seminars and debates, but also prepared studies about education in Brazil and two important reports: Victimization Report and Health Report. Study: "Comparing Top and Worst São Paulo Schools Based on SARESP and Prova Brasil Scores" by Naercio Menezes Filho - Diana Fekete Nuñez - Fernanda Patriota Ribeiro

9 This article compares the features in the best and worst schools in the state of São Paulo in terms of students' learning. The factors that affect performances the most are analyzed through data in 2007 Prova Brasil and 2008 SARESP. We scrutinize the factors responsible for keeping a school among the top 10 percent or the bottom 10 percent in the state of São Paulo, by analyzing the competences and the questionnaires answered by the school staff and the students in Prova Brasil 1 and SARESP, given to 8 th graders within the Math evaluation. The investigation and abstract separation of such factors is essential to know which policies have really improved students performances as well as which ones have failed and, therefore, must be reconsidered by educational policies formulators. This information is highly useful for education researchers and scientists, and also for students and families, who can demand changes in the learning influence factors at school 2. Survey Report PNAD Data on Health from 1998 and 2003 The studies about health services shall be compared to further literature and are based on PNAD (a national survey sampling) data, which essentially uses microdata about the usage of and access to health services. The report abstracts survey data and forms a general picture of patients in Brazil. As means of comparison, a series of studies about health services is used; among them, the comments made by the data collectors themselves Health Services Access and Usage from 1998 to Survey Report Victimization in São Paulo This report compares the victimization rate in the city of São Paulo in 2003 and 2008, the years when the survey was made. The survey was conducted by Insper's Public Policies Center and by Ipsos Public Affairs. The latter was responsible for the interviews and for inputting the information in a database. When comparing 2003 and 2008 results by analyzing the database, we concluded that 1 This analysis only considered the state of São Paulo, to enable the comparison between SARESP and Prova Brasil. 2 See Hastings and Weinstein (2008).

10 levels of victimization remained the same for certain kinds of crime, declined for other kinds, but there were also increases. Even though certain rates declined, the levels of victimization are still very high, worrying the citizens in São Paulo. So, CPP wishes to make this data public as a resource to guide public safety policies. CPP on the Net To better publicize our studies, CPP's website ( makes complete studies and reports available. Their lines of research are: Crime Rates and History, International Trade, Education, Elections, Industrial Organization, Job Market and Public Health. SARESP and Prova Brasil grades comparison statistics can be seen at our website as well. Besides, CPP also keeps a blog ( to promptly publish information about researches, articles, interesting news and miscellaneous subjects. The blog is open for the exchange of knowledge with the public and for criticism, suggestions and comments about the posts and about the Public Policies Center. In the blog, there are pools to decide CPP Debates subjects and to know the readers' opinions (e.g., about education in Brazil). For those interested, CPP is also on Twitter.com, as cpp_insper. This is the tool we use to say what is going on at CPP and inform the chosen subject for CPP Debates.