16/01/2020

Lyra presents work on social security systems.

Between his doctoral studies at IMPA and his term as a city councilman in Rio de Janeiro, Leandro Lyra has little time left to engage in other activities. His dream of dedicating himself to teaching was one of the reasons that led him to pursue a doctorate . "Ever since I finished my undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at the Military Institute of Engineering (IME), where I was a teaching assistant in Calculus, I've had the urge to become a teacher," he says.

On the verge of defending his thesis “Equilibrium theory and social security”, the young man bids farewell to IMPA and takes an important step towards this goal. Supervised by researcher Aloisio Araújo, the work will be presented this Friday (17), at 3 pm, in room 224.

Born in Belém, but raised in Barcarena, an important industrial hub in Pará that houses the state's largest port, Leandro says he had "a typical childhood for someone growing up in the countryside." Even as a child, contact with his parents' profession—both engineers at the mining company Vale—and interaction with good teachers encouraged the young boy to persevere in his studies.

During adolescence, participation in Science Olympiads in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and astronomy also opened his eyes to the universe of numbers. He still vividly remembers the emotion he felt when he won an honorable mention in the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad in 2006. “It was absolutely remarkable. I was in 8th grade then, and I saw, for the first time, my city, Barcarena, appear in the ranking of a national competition.”

At 17, he left the quiet town of Barcarena to study Electrical Engineering at IME in Rio de Janeiro. “For me, IME was a great undergraduate school. For all the training, both military and academic, I only have gratitude for the Institute,” says the doctoral candidate who served as an Officer in the Brazilian Army and was valedictorian of the General Argus Fagundes Ourique Moreira class.

After returning from a period at the École Polytechnique de Paris to the Summer Program at IMPA in 2013, Leandro was impressed by the prominence of the researchers and the quality of the Institute's courses. He then began courses in the area of Mathematical Economics and later enrolled in a master's program in Mathematical Methods in Finance, while still an undergraduate at IME.

“IMPA has an excellent administrative structure, from the Teaching Division and the library to the cafeteria; everything works to provide complete support to students and researchers. Anyone who has studied here is very proud,” says the doctoral candidate, who received the 10th ANBIMA Capital Markets Award for his master's thesis.

In his doctoral studies at IMPA, which he began in 2015, Lyra researches pension systems, seeking to describe the structure of optimal and sustainable retirement systems through overlapping generations equilibrium models. His work characterizes, for example, the effects of demographics, the trajectory of equilibrium rates for contributions and benefits, the compatibility of incentives in pension rules, and the mechanisms capable of implementing Pareto improvements.

Keeping an eye on the frequent academic and political debates about social security and pension systems that emerged in the country starting in 2016, the engineer decided to embrace this field of research, studying it from the perspective of General Equilibrium models.

“I wanted to contribute, in particular, to the analysis of the systems of our states and municipalities. The development of the thesis followed the discussions that took place in the country, and we were able to raise important issues involving 'notional accounts' systems and the pension balance of subnational entities. Due to the scale that pension systems assume, and because several unresolved issues persist, both academically and politically, I believe it is a field of research that deserves constant attention.”

The numerical chapter of his thesis, which outlines the projections of the pension systems of the state and municipality of Rio de Janeiro, was published by the National Treasury after being awarded 1st place in the XXIV National Treasury Prize . The doctoral candidate does not forget to give credit to his advisor for the recognition of the project. “It was a privilege to be advised by Professor Aloisio Araújo. Without the work he conducts at IMPA, I would not have had half the opportunities I had and, clearly, I would not have gotten this far.”

About to earn his doctorate from the institute, Leandro believes that mathematics is an important tool for society. “It was mathematics that motivated me to persevere and deepen my studies, and it also gave me many opportunities. From the science olympiads when I was a boy, to my thesis defense at IMPA this week, mathematics has been present at every step I've taken. Just as it has been a good path for my life, I believe it will be for other people as well. Knowing mathematics enables us to understand and act better in the world,” he concludes.