PUBLIC DEBT: A PROPOSAL FOR MEASUREMENT FOR BRAZILIAN CITIES FROM THE ELABORATION OF A CONSTRUCT

Abstract

The objective of this work is to propose an instrument for measuring public debt to Brazilian cities, based on the elaboration of a construct. Within the adopted procedures, the objectives are defined as descriptive research, how many to the procedures such as bibliographic research and the approach to the problem as quantitative. The object of investigation of this work were the Brazilian municipalities, being adopted the process of non-random sampling by judgment for selection of the sample. In this way, the sample of this study composes the cities with a population above 30 thousand inhabitants, totaling a sample of 1,158 municipalities. The construct of public debt, elaborated using the statistical technique of exploratory factor analysis, presented 34 variables involved and the three-dimensional proposition: financial capacity, the State-society relationship and dependence of third parties with these factors, the model presented an explanatory power of 78.87% of the total variance observed. This result demonstrates the relevance of the analysis of the public debt from the proposed measurement model, considering the high degree of adequacy of the same. We conclude with the elaboration of the construct, the public debt of the municipalities has a multidimensional aspect and, therefore, should be analyzed from a model that considers the correlations between social indicators, result among others that significant in the formation of the construct.