Resumo:
This dissertation develops and empirically tests the Economics of Evidence as an
agenda of applied economics, dedicated to the analysis of expert evidence in tax
judicial proceedings as an informational good, a strategic asset, and a central element
of bounded rationality. It starts from the hypothesis that the strategic value of expert
evidence, as perceived and practiced by tax attorneys, arises from the balance
between the expected informational return and the economic, cognitive, and
institutional costs of its production, in an environment marked by uncertainty,
informational asymmetry, and procedural constraints. Methodologically, an approach
specific to applied microeconomics is adopted, combining theoretical modeling of
choice under constraints with empirical verification through binary logit and ordered
logit models, estimated from primary data collected from tax attorneys. The interpretive
cross-analysis of the models provides evidence of structural coherence between
perception and behavior: whereas the binary logit delineates the decisional contour of
the attribution of strategic value to expert evidence, the ordered logit reveals the
intensity of this valuation throughout the agent’s cognitive process. The results indicate
that the presence of a technical assistant acts as a complementary informational asset,
reducing cognitive asymmetries and increasing the marginal utility of the evidence; that
professional experience is transformed into technical discernment and rational
selectivity; and that costs and delay function as barriers to evidentiary investment.
Such evidence confirms the hypothesis of bounded rationality, demonstrating that tax
judicial proceedings operate as an economic system of information production and
circulation under constraints of cost, time, and predictability. It is concluded that expert
evidence is not a neutral instrument, but a mechanism for the reduction of uncertainty
and the redistribution of cognitive power, consolidating itself as an economic and
strategic asset within judicial proceedings.
