The primary aim of this study was to analyze the geographic distribution of physicians among the Regions and States of Brazil using a locational choice model. Our individual data analysis showed a positive relationship between the number of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants in a State and the number of places in residency programs. Thus, the concentration of residency programs in some States has contributed to the unequal distribution of physicians in Brazil. There are also significant differences in physicians' income between Regions.

This article presents an analysis of the technology transfer process from universities and public research institutes to firms in Brazil. In particular, this study is concerned with the role of patents in this process. Although there is a certain enthusiasm in promoting technology transfer offices to manage university patents, the importance of patents to the technology transfer process is not yet well understood in literature. We conducted a survey with leaders of research groups from universities and public research institutes that developed and transferred technology to firms. The results show that patents are one of the least-used channels of technology transfer by universities and public research institutes. But the importance of the channels varies according to the type of technology transferred and to the firms' industry.

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar como as universidades e os institutos públicos de pesquisa podem contribuir para o avanço tecnológico de países em de-senvolvimento e apresentar argumentos que sugerem que a importância desses agentes tem aumentado com os recentes paradigmas tecnológicos e o fortalecimento da proteção à propriedade intelectual no cenário internacional. Para tanto, são discutidas as relações entre ciência e tecnologia e as características presentes nas experiências de catching-up de sucesso.

Este artigo apresenta resultados preliminares de tabulações especiais preparadas pelo IBGE (a partir da Pintec), focalizando a relação entre universidades e empresas. A hipótese básica é a de que o envolvimento de uma empresa com atividades de P&D (interna e/ou externa) amplia a importância das universidades como fonte de informação para suas atividades inovativas. Esta hipótese é investigada e se sustenta tanto nos dados gerais como em uma análise intersetorial.