In the last episode of the year, Brazilian Women in Economics’s podcast made a role reversal: Laura Karpuska, member of BWE and responsible for lead most of the interviews, was interviewed by Natalie Victal, an economist of Garde Asset. Laura is Ph.D. in Economics from Stony Brook University. Her research area is Political Economy, especially how “countries can design political budgetary negotiations, aiming at welfare improvement and inequality reduction” (https://laurakarpuska.wordpress.com/).

Laura remembers that her choice for Economics had the influence of a friend. Before, she imagined herself in a career like Language or Philosophy. In the earlier undergraduate years, the young student lived the lack of people to get inspired. Gradually she was inspired by her female professors and other women in Economics.

Talking about her research area, the economist emphasizes how public budgeting can facilitate political accountability (monitoring of government). According to her, checking the campaign promises is insufficient to analyze management efficiency. Instead, analyzing the budget is a strategy more elucidative. Laura also talked about obligatory expenditures and how they can contribute to benefit the whole Brazilian society, and not just some interest groups. The current model of obligatory expenditures isn’t long-term feasible, though.

Karpuska believes that focalizing public expenditures is one of the most important challenges in Brazil. Mainly in this pandemic period, expend more doesn’t mean achieve efficient results. As a positive example, the researcher mentioned a city that is a model in relation to investment in Education: Sobral, in Ceará.

Don’t miss the last episode of the year and we will see you soon!