Three essays on FDI and uneven development

Abstract

Undoubtedly, my first words of gratefulness must aim at my family. I devote my gratitude to my parents, Maria Fernanda and José Oscar, for a lifetime of support and lessons learned; you have been the ultimate source and mold to my character, persistence, and integrity. But I must also thank my second set of parents, Claudia and Francisco, without whom I could not have made it so far. For always believing and understanding my resolve and motivations, for having my back and taking so good care of me through all these years: I thank you. I am also truly thankful for all the support and affection from my sister Isadora, not only during the last few years, but since the beginning of my life. During my period of experience and learning at the University of São Paulo, I was able to be in touch with professors of the highest intellectual level who absolutely marked my training as an economist. In particular, I would like to thank Pedro Garcia Duarte and Márcio Nakane for their remarkable roles during my master's degree. Furthermore, I am also grateful to Carolina Baltar and Rafael Ribeiro for accompanying this research since the process of progress evaluation: your comments and directions had great importance for the fulfillment of this thesis. I also appreciate the substantial, creative contributions of Fernando Rugitsky and Laura Carvalho during the development of this research. Since the first meeting of the research group I attended, the discussions, corrections, and conjectures shaped the progress of my work. All of these have been equally important inputs in making this thesis come to life. Furthermore, I will be forever grateful to both teachers for opening several doors for my academic career. I would also like to send special thanks to Fernando for always making himself available and following me closely since the beginning of my bachelor's degree in this University. Moreover, despite the difficulty of expressing his importance for this thesis in a nutshell, I am especially grateful to my advisor, Gilberto Tadeu Lima, for seeing the fruitfulness in my ideas, and for the indispensable and unwavering help he has provided to the task of making sense of them. I thank you so much for every conversation (usually of a few hours), for all the patience in listening and discussing, so many times, the questions and possible advances of this research and, especially, by being the example of intellectual and researcher who has shaped my first steps into an academic career and which is, for me, a model to follow. For always believing in my potential (when I, myself, did not) and for being a friend, I thank you.