Adriana Bruscato Bortoluzzo

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how market knowledge and social influences are associated with investment decisions in Brazil. It examines the relationship between investment participation and two cognitive enablers – self-declared market knowledge and education – as well as three information channels: professional guidance, autonomous search and informal sources. Investment decisions are differentiated according to the complexity of financial products, classified as low, medium or high. Design/methodology/approach: Annual data from the Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities (ANBIMA)/Datafolha “X-ray of the Brazilian Investor” survey (2018–2023) are analyzed, comprising 26,428 individuals aged 16 and over across all Brazilian regions. Financial products are classified into low-, medium- and high-complexity categories. Separate binary logistic regression models are estimated for each category because respondents may hold investments across multiple complexity levels and the proportional odds assumption of ordinal logistic regression is violated. The models assess associations between investment decisions, market knowledge, education and information sources, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, regional, temporal and pandemic-related factors. Robustness analyses are conducted by excluding the COVID-19 pandemic years. Findings: Findings indicate that market knowledge is positively associated with investment participation across all product categories, with stronger effects for medium- and high-complexity investments. Professional guidance shows the strongest association with low-complexity products, whereas autonomous information search is most strongly associated with high-complexity investments. Informal sources are positively associated with participation, but their practical relevance declines as product complexity increases. Education is positively associated with medium- and high-complexity investments, while higher education is negatively associated with low-complexity products. Income, age, gender, marital status, region and the pandemic also exhibit heterogeneous associations across complexity categories. Social implications: Greater financial literacy and access to reliable information can promote financial inclusion and more equitable investment opportunities. Limited familiarity with complex financial products remains an important barrier to market participation, while regional disparities reflect unequal access to financial resources and information. Educational initiatives should foster greater autonomy and confidence in navigating complex digital financial environments. Public policies should address financial misinformation and improve risk disclosure practices, particularly in regions with limited access to information. In parallel, the financial sector can support informed decision-making by developing mechanisms that mitigate behavioral biases and align financial sophistication with appropriate risk management. Originality/value: The research contributes to the literature by providing a granular analysis of investment decisions according to financial product complexity in an emerging market. Rather than treating investment participation as a binary outcome or focusing exclusively on stocks, it distinguishes low-, medium- and high-complexity products and examines how market knowledge and different information channels are associated with each category. By integrating cognitive enablers and social influences within a conceptual framework, the analysis reveals heterogeneous patterns across investment categories and provides evidence on how professional guidance, autonomous information search and informal sources relate differently to investment participation in the Brazilian financial market.

Introdução: Mulheres cuidadoras de familiares com demência são um grupo particularmente vulnerável no contexto do envelhecimento populacional, pois frequentemente negligenciam a própria saúde e o auto-cuidado, aumentando o risco de desenvolver doenças crônicas, inclusive declínio cognitivo. Objetivos: 1) Traduzir e adaptar culturalmente a ferramenta Lifestyle Medicine Assessment (LMA) para o português, para uso em cuidadoras de pacientes com demência 2) Utilizar Inteligência Artificial (IA) para gerar recomendações de mudança de estilo de vida 3) Avaliar o impacto do LMA na conscientização e mudanças comportamentais das cuidadoras Métodos: Estudo longitudinal com 11 cuidadoras familiares, acima de 55 anos. Após a aplicação inicial do LMA, foi realizada palestra motivacional e foram formulados relatórios personalizados, gerados por IA e revisados por geriatra, com orientações de mudança, aseado nos pilares da medicina do estilo de vida. O LMA foi reaplicado após 3 e 6 meses. Resultados: O estudo validou a versão em português do LMA, com boa consistência interna (Alfa de Cronbach ≥0,7). Considerando o modelo transteórico de mudança, 70% das cuidadoras alcançou a fase de ação ou manutenção em seis meses. Notamos baixa eficácia prática dos relatórios gerados por IA, percebidos como uma demanda adicional e não como ferramenta facilitadora. Apesar da amostra pequena, observou-se melhora na pontuação global do LMA em 6 meses, com significância. Na análise dos pilares: Movimento teve melhora ao longo do tempo, mas não confirmou significância após correção para comparações múltiplas. Nutrição e Conexão mantiveram médias elevadas, e Recuperação permaneceu como principal desafio. Conclusão: O estudo conclui que o LMA é uma ferramenta valiosa para esta população, destacando a importância do autocuidado e mudança de estilo de vida para reduzir o próprio risco de doenças crônicas das cuidadoras.

Brazil has rapidly become one of the world’s largest online betting markets, raising public health and consumer-protection concerns in a newly regulated environment. Using data from a nationally representative Brazilian survey, the 2023–2024 X-Ray of the Brazilian Investor ( N = 10,305), this study examined demographic, digital, financial, and psychosocial correlates of fixed-odds online betting participation. Logistic regressions showed that participation was most strongly associated with younger age, male sex, and constant internet use. Compared with adults aged 60+, respondents aged 18–34 had substantially higher odds of betting (OR = 7.30, 95% CI [5.38, 10.08]); men also had higher odds than women (OR = 2.32, 95% CI [2.04, 2.63]), as did constant internet users compared with non-users (OR = 4.62, 95% CI [2.53, 9.48]). High-risk/high-complexity investment profiles were also positively associated with betting (OR = 1.86, 95% CI [1.28, 2.68]), whereas saving was negatively associated (OR = 0.76, 95% CI [0.66, 0.88]). Findings suggest that regulatory strategies in emerging betting markets should prioritize youth exposure, digital accessibility, and intersections between gambling and speculative financial behavior.

This study investigates the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and the cost of debt (CoD) for publicly traded non-financial Brazilian companies from 2014 to 2023. This study analyzes the relationship between ESG quality and the CoD, a topic less explored than the link between ESG and the cost of equity. Existing research mainly focuses on developed economies or cross-country analyses, providing limited evidence for emerging markets. By examining Brazil – where regulators have long encouraged and recently mandated ESG disclosure and its use in credit assessments – the study addresses this gap. It offers timely evidence on how ESG transparency and performance affect credit pricing, financial outcomes, and the mitigation of institutional weaknesses, especially in industries with higher environmental and social risk exposure. Understanding how ESG factors shape financing conditions is vital for investors, lenders, and corporate managers seeking to align sustainability with capital allocation and risk management, especially in markets with higher institutional uncertainty. The empirical analysis uses panel regressions with firm fixed effects as the main approach, complemented by the difference-generalized method of moments to address endogeneity and simultaneity, with consistent results. The CoD is measured by interest expenses over interest-bearing liabilities, ESG performance by Refinitiv Eikon scores, and controls include firm characteristics and macroeconomic variables. Empirical evidence shows that superior ESG performance is significantly associated with a lower CoD for Brazilian firms. The governance pillar has the strongest and most consistent impact, while the environmental pillar has marginal significance and the social pillar shows no meaningful relationship. These findings underscore that strong governance reduces perceived credit risk and financing costs in emerging markets. They also highlight the need for greater standardization of ESG taxonomies and the integration of environmental and social risks into credit risk assessments.

Home-field advantage is a phenomenon well-recognized both by fans and literature. This study analyses the impact of the video assistant referees (VAR) at home advantage. It tests if the VAR – a referee that can rectify the decision of the field referee in some moments – decreased the referee bias. The study modeled the performance of 16 teams playing the Brazilian National Soccer League in 2018 and 2019 – year of the VAR introduction –, using home and away goals as the dependent variables in a bivariate Poisson regression model. The reduced-form was estimated by ordinary least squares (OLS), to control endogeneity caused by the number of fans present at the match – a control variable in our model –, because a bigger number of fans can improve the home team performance, but it can be related to the expectations that the home team is the favorite one at the match. The evidence suggest the VAR was responsible for an increase at the scoring chance of the away teams, while did not impact the goal chance of the home teams significantly.

RESUMO Este estudo investiga a relação entre práticas ambientais, sociais e de governança (environmental, social, and governance - ESG) e o custo da dívida (cost of debt - CoD) de companhias brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto no período de 2014 a 2023. O estudo analisa a relação entre a qualidade ESG e o CoD, um tema menos explorado do que a relação entre ESG e o custo do capital próprio. A literatura existente concentra-se principalmente em economias desenvolvidas ou em análises internacionais, oferecendo evidências limitadas para mercados emergentes. Ao examinar o Brasil - país em que reguladores há muito incentivam e, mais recentemente, passaram a exigir a divulgação ESG e sua utilização em avaliações de crédito -, o estudo contribui para preencher essa lacuna. O artigo oferece evidências oportunas sobre como a transparência e o desempenho ESG afetam a precificação do crédito, os resultados financeiros e a mitigação de fragilidades institucionais, especialmente em setores com maior exposição a riscos ambientais e sociais. Compreender como os fatores ESG moldam as condições de financiamento é fundamental para investidores, credores e gestores corporativos que buscam alinhar sustentabilidade à alocação de capital e à gestão de riscos, especialmente em mercados caracterizados por maior incerteza institucional. A análise empírica utiliza regressões em painel com efeitos fixos de firma como abordagem principal, complementadas pelo método dos momentos generalizados em diferenças (difference-generalized method of moments), a fim de tratar problemas de endogeneidade e simultaneidade, com resultados consistentes. O CoD é mensurado pela razão entre despesas financeiras e passivos onerosos; o desempenho ESG, pelos scores da Refinitiv Eikon; e os controles incluem características das firmas e variáveis macroeconômicas. As evidências empíricas mostram que um desempenho ESG superior está significativamente associado a um menor CoD para as empresas brasileiras. O pilar de governança apresenta o impacto mais forte e consistente, enquanto o pilar ambiental possui significância marginal e o pilar social não apresenta relação substantiva. Esses achados ressaltam que uma governança robusta reduz o risco de crédito percebido e os custos de financiamento em mercados emergentes. Também destacam a necessidade de maior padronização das taxonomias ESG e de integração dos riscos ambientais e sociais às avaliações de risco de crédito.

The innovations provided by FinTechs are consolidating themselves as the main transforming agent of financial services, especially because the technology provided by such businesses, promotes the expansion of access to various products in this segment, stimulates employment, income and economic growth. But even though such startups are interested in the success of their business, many fail and become insolvent. Understanding the factors that contribute to the mortality of these organizations can be an important issue for founders, funding institutions or policymakers, since anticipating a risk situation is essential to trigger preventive or alternative actions that ultimately reduce the cost of an inevitable insolvency. Given the context presented, this study analyzes through a regression model with dynamic panel data, the relationship between the macroeconomic factors and the aggregate rate of bankruptcy of the FinTechs of the ten largest countries in total number of startups according to the Startup Ranking website (2022): United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, France, Brazil, Spain and Indonesia, for the period between 2010 and 2020. The sample consists of 9.970 FinTechs that declared bankruptcy and 137.993 active FinTechs, totaling 147.963 FinTechs. The results showed that stock market activities, the unemployment rate, the opening rate of new FinTechs, the corruption perception index and the quality of regulations are determinants of the aggregate failure of FiTechs and suggest that macroeconomic factors can influence the level of insolvency of developed countries differently from emerging countries.

Objective: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) often presents alongside other connective tissue disorders, termed "overlap syndrome (OS)." This study aimed to characterize patients with SSc with OS compared to those without OS in a tertiary university hospital in Brazil.Methods: A retrospective analysis of demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from 787 SSc patients was performed using electronic medical records. Patients were classified based on the 2013 American College of Rheumatology/European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology criteria for SSc and additional criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM), Sjögren disease (SjD), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Statistical analysis, including univariate and multivariate methods, identified factors associated with OS.Results: Ninety-one patients (11.6%) had OS, mainly with SLE (29.7%), SjD (26.4%), RA (24.2%), or IIM (19.8%). Patients with OS were younger, with an earlier age at onset (P= 0.004) and at diagnosis (P= 0.003). They presented a higher prevalence of limited SSc (P_trend= 0.06), musculoskeletal symptoms (P< 0.001), neoplasia (P= 0.03), and sicca symptoms (P< 0.001); and were associated with a lower frequency of pulmonary hypertension (P= 0.048) and comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus (P= 0.02) and dyslipidemia (P= 0.02). A higher prevalence of anti-Ro (P= 0.007) and a lower prevalence of anti-Scl70 (P= 0.003) were also observed. Patients with OS were more frequently prescribed glucocorticoids (GCs;P< 0.001), methotrexate (P= 0.01), and leflunomide (P= 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified limited SSc (odds ratio [OR] 3.1), neoplasia (OR 3.4), and use of GCs (OR 8.2) and leflunomide (OR 5.5) with OS. No worse prognosis was observed.Conclusion: Overall, Brazilian patients with SSc with OS have distinct clinical characteristics but do not have a worse prognosis compared to those without OS.