This article aims to offer three contributions to the debate on the recent performance of the Brazilian economy. First, it presents approximate quarterly figures for the Brazilian private investment beginning in 1995. Second, it presents estimates of the Brazilian "investment function" which are robust to the presence of structural breaks. Third, it discusses the sensitivity of private investment to increases in the gross aggregate tax rate. Estimates based on national accounting data prior to march 2007 seem to indicate that an increase of 1% of GDP in the tax rate is associated with a reduction of 1% in private investment.

Este artigo apresenta uma metodologia de estimação da carga tributária bruta brasileira (e de alguns de seus principais componentes) em níveis trimestrais, detalha os problemas práticos enfrentados na implementação dessa última (por volta de abril de 2008) e, por fim, apresenta as estimativas obtidas para o período que vai do primeiro trimestre de 1995 até o quarto trimestre de 2007.

This article presents a methodology for estimating quarterly figures for the Brazilian aggregate gross tax burden (and for some of its main components), details the practical problems one has to tackle when trying to implement it (as of April, 2008) and, finally, presents the estimates one obtains for the period beginning in the first quarter of 1995 and finishing in the fourth quarter of 2007.