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Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to assess the progress of the banking sector before and shortly after the Real Plan. We began by assessing the drop in the inflation revenues (negative real interest rates paid by the excess of demand deposits over total reserve requirements) as a result of the change in inflation from 40% a month for the pre-Real Plan period to a monthly average of 3.65% (IGP-DI), between July 1994 and May 1995. Then, using the financial statement data of a group of 90 banks, we attempt to estimate the net losses due to the inflation drop analyzing the profitability and other parameters of the banking industry. The calculations are made separately for private, state and federal banks. A later analysis on performance using information given to CVM (Securities Exchange Commission) by the six major private banks in the country is also discussed herein.

Abstract:
The paper econometricaly estimates demand systems for the beer sector in Brazil. The own and cross elasticities of demand display, as a rule, the behavior predicted in theory. One can define upon a conjectural variations model developed for oligopoly, a measure of welfare loss as proportion of the sector's total revenue. Such measure, calculated for different values of the conjectural variation parameter, indicates that the losses associated with the exercise of market power are significant.

Market Power, Cointegration, Residual Demand