THE STANDARD PUBLIC DEBT IN MID-SIZED BRAZILIAN MUNICIPALITIES AFTER THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT

The aim of this paper is to examine whether the pattern of the public debt of the Brazilian municipalities with population between 100,000 and 1 million was changed with the advent of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. We analyzed the years of 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2008. The applied methodology characterizes the research as descriptive, bibliographical and documental. The approach is quantitative, employing the statistical technique of average differences. The debt is represented by five accounting and financial indicators: Short-term Debt, Long Term Debt, Total Debt, Net Debt, and LRF debt index. The results indicate that the enactment of LRF changed the public debt of these municipalities; that during the first administration after the LRF (2001-2004) the changes observed in 2000 deepened, whereas in the second administration after LRF (2005-2008) the debt has not changed in relation to the previous administration, going to show stability. Keywords: Public debt. Brazilian municipalities. Fiscal Responsibility Act.