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UNIVERSIDADE PAULISTA - UNIP

AVALIAO DO IMPACTO ECONMICO


DA METROLOGIA LEGAL

Tese apresentada ao Programa de PsGraduao em Engenharia de Produo da


Universidade Paulista UNIP, para obteno
do ttulo de Doutor em Engenharia de
Produo.

BRUNO AMADO RODRIGUES FILHO

So Paulo
2016

UNIVERSIDADE PAULISTA - UNIP

AVALIAO DO IMPACTO ECONMICO


DA METROLOGIA LEGAL

Tese apresentada ao Programa de PsGraduao em Engenharia de Produo da


Universidade Paulista UNIP, para obteno
do ttulo de Doutor em Engenharia de
Produo.
Orientador:
Gonalves.

Prof.

Dr.

Rodrigo

Franco

rea de Concentrao: Gesto de Sistemas


de Operao.
Linha de Pesquisa: Redes de Empresas e
Planejamento da Produo.
Projeto de Pesquisa: Aplicaes de lgicas
no clssicas, modelagem matemtica e
simulao na engenharia financeira e
economia de empresas.

BRUNO AMADO RODRIGUES FILHO

So Paulo
2016

Rodrigues Filho, Bruno Amado.


Avaliao do impacto econmico da metrologia legal / Bruno Amado
Rodrigues Filho. - 2016.
67 f. : il. color.
Tese de Doutorado Apresentada ao Programa de Ps Graduao em
Engenharia de Produo da Universidade Paulista, So Paulo, 2016.
rea de Concentrao: Redes d e Empresas e Planejamento da
Produo.
Orientador: Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Franco Gonalves.

1. Metrologia legal. 2. Impacto econmico. 3. Regulamentao.
4. Insumo-produto. 5. Leontief. I. Gonalves, Rodrigo Franco (orientador).
II. Ttulo.

BRUNO AMADO RODRIGUES FILHO

AVALIAO DO IMPACTO ECONMICO


DA METROLOGIA LEGAL

Tese apresentada ao Programa de PsGraduao em Engenharia de Produo da


Universidade Paulista UNIP, para obteno
do ttulo de Doutor em Engenharia de
Produo.
Aprovado em:
BANCA EXAMINADORA
____________________________________________/__/____
Orientador: Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Franco Gonalves
Universidade Paulista UNIP
____________________________________________/__/____
Prof. Dr. Oduvaldo Vendrametto
Universidade Paulista UNIP
____________________________________________/__/____
Prof. Dr. Pedro Luiz de Oliveira Costa Neto
Universidade Paulista UNIP
____________________________________________/__/____
Prof. Dr. Alexandre Nixon Raulino Soratto da Silva
Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia INMETRO
____________________________________________/__/____
Prof. Dr. Erik Eduardo Rego
Universidade de So Paulo USP

DEDICATRIA

Dedico este trabalho a minha esposa e filho,


que

suportaram

todo

este

perodo

de

dedicao intensiva ao desenvolvimento


desta pesquisa. E tambm aos amigos feitos
durante este perodo no Programa de PsGraduao.

AGRADECIMENTOS

Agradeo ao orientador Rodrigo Franco Gonalves por apresentar uma nova


abordagem quantitativa e objetiva em engenharia econmica, permitindo assim que um fsico
se adequasse engenharia de produo.
A todos os professores do Programa de Ps-Graduao em Engenharia de Produo,
que de uma forma ou outra contriburam para este trabalho e em especial aos professores
Pedro Luiz de Oliveira Costa Neto, Oduvaldo Vendrametto, Joo Gilberto, Mrcia Terra e
Irenilza de Alencar Ns, que tiveram um papel importante como guias e crticos do trabalho
que foi construdo ao longo de todo o curso.
Agradeo tambm aos amigos Alexandre Nixon Raulino Soratto da Silva e Mauricio
Evangelista da Silva, que contriburam com comentrios tcnicos na rea da metrologia e seus
conhecimentos acerca da metrologia legal e ao amigo Lssio Nunes, por suas sugestes
sempre pertinentes na rea de estatstica.
Finalmente, agradeo ao Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia
INMETRO, que permitiu a realizao deste trabalho, provendo tambm os dados necessrios
para a construo do estudo.

RESUMO
O objetivo deste trabalho a avaliao do impacto econmico da metrologia legal. Assim, a
pesquisa utiliza uma abordagem quantitativa baseada na formulao do modelo de insumoproduto. A formulao proposta considera todas as interconexes dos setores produtivos,
determinando como um desvio de medio em um produto impacta toda a economia. Um
desvio representa a mdia dos erros de medio dos instrumentos utilizados, na indstria e
comrcio, nos consumos intermedirios e na demanda final de produtos cujo valor baseado
em uma medio. Foram simulados os impactos em diferentes produtos-chave para a
economia brasileira nos setores de commodities, combustveis, minerao e servios de
utilidade. Tambm foram utilizados dados empricos de erros de medio no setor de
combustveis no Brasil para a determinao de dois tipos de desvios: erros associados
variao aleatria das medies e erros intencionais de carter sistemtico, tambm
denominados fraudes. Os dados so advindos do Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade
e Tecnologia Inmetro, rgo responsvel pela metrologia legal no pas, assim como dados da
matriz de insumo-produto brasileira elaborada pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e
Estatstica IBGE. Os resultados mostram que, para o setor de utilidade, um erro mdio de
1% representa um impacto de US$ 995.679.155,81, significando 0,112% do PIB. Para o setor
de combustveis, o impacto mdio calculado foi de US$ 25.505.627,88. Para uma fraude, no
caso de etanol automotivo, com erro mdio de 10% na quantidade comercializada em 1% dos
instrumentos utilizados o valor calculado de US$ 303.734.309,35. Os resultados
demonstram o significativo impacto econmico dos erros de produtos cujo valor baseado
em medies. O mtodo proposto permite identificar os produtos que tm maior impacto
econmico e mostra-se como ferramenta para direcionar polticas na rea da metrologia e
contribuir para a competitividade da indstria e proteo ao consumidor.
Palavras-chave: metrologia legal; impacto econmico; regulamentao; insumo-produto;
Leontief.

ABSTRACT
The present research aims to evaluate the economic impact of the legal metrology. Then, a
quantitative approach based on the input-output model is conducted. The proposed
formulation considers the interconnections among the final demand and the productive
sectors, determining the aggregated impact of a measurement deviation on the economy.
These deviations represent the average error of the instruments used to trade goods which
value is based on a measurement. We simulated the impact of different key products to the
Brazilian economy, such as commodities, fuel, mining and utility services. Additionally we
used empirical data of measurement errors for the fuel market in order to determine the
impact of either deviations: errors due to random variations of measurements; systematic
intentional errors, also know as metrological frauds. The dataset is from the measurement
errors report in the fuel sector from the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and
Technology INMETRO, responsible for the legal metrology in Brazil, as well as the InputOutput matrices published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography IBGE. For the utility
services, the results show that a 1% average error would represent an impact of
US$ 995,679,155.81 representing 0.112% of the GDP. For the fuel market, the average
impact represents US$ 25,505,627.88. For an average metrological fraud of 10% in traded
volume of ethanol in 1% of the instruments in the market, the evaluated economic impact
represents US$ 303,734,309.35. The results show the significant impact of measurement
errors to the economy. The proposed method also permits to identify the most significant
products to the economy leading metrological policies to competitiveness of the industry and
to consumers protection.
Keywords: Legal metrology; economic impact; regulation; input-output; Leontief.

LISTA DE FIGURAS
Figura 1. Relacionamento das etapas deste trabalho com uma pesquisa de procedimentos
experimentais______________________________________________________________23
Figura 2. Constituio do objetivo geral por meio dos objetivos especficos e artigos e sees
de artigos elaborados que representam cada objetivo especfico da tese_________________25
Figuras: Artigo 1
Figure 1. Systematic search process for articles to be considered in the study___________29
Figure 2. Results of each step of the systematic process ____________________________31
Figuras: Artigo 2
Figure 1. Scilabe 5.5.2 code used to simulate the economic distortion_________________45
Figure 2. Measuring error distribution for gasoline fuel dispenser___________________ 45
Figure 3. Economic distortion curve for utility services____________________________46
Figure 4. Economic distortion curve for commodities_____________________________ 46
Figure 5. Economic distortion curve for automotive fuels__________________________ 46
Figure 6. Economic distortion curve for mining__________________________________47
Figure 7. Economic distortion for empirical data, CMC and MPE range______________48
Figuras: Artigo 3
Figure 1. Uncertainty evaluation for the economic distortion_______________________ 56
Figure 2. Process for replacing empirical measurement errors for simulated defraudes values
________________________________________________________________________57
Figure 3. Effect of metrological frauds on the economy according to the percentage of
fraudulent instruments______________________________________________________58
Figure 4. Economic distortion for a constant number of fraudulent devices and volume
variation_________________________________________________________________58

LISTA DE TABELAS
Tabelas: Artigo 1
Table 1. Strings used to search electronic databases_______________________________28
Table 2. Selection criteria for article inclusion and exclusion _______________________ 28
Table 3. Journals and electronic databases that were searched______________________ 28
Table 4. Selected studies by topic category___________________________________30 31
Table 5. Number of selected studies by category__________________________________ 31
Tabelas: Artigo 2
Table 1: Products simulated to compute the economic distortion_____________________45
Table 2: Average errors and standard deviation of fuels dispenser ___________________45
Table 3: Economic distortion for a measuring error of 1% impact on the GDP_________ 46
Table 4: Linear approaches for the curves in figures 2-5 __________________________ 47

Tabelas: Artigo 3
Table 1: The variation of the measurement uncertainty according to the percentage of
fraudulent devices for a 10% volume deviation__________________________________ 58

LISTA DE SIGLAS
AFRIMETS Intra-Africa Metrology System
ANP Agncia Nacional de Petrleo, Gs Natural e Biocombustveis
APLMF Asia Pacific Legal Metrology Forum
APMS Advances in Production Management Systems
BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
CAA Conformity Assessment Activities
CMC Capacidade de Medio e Calibrao
COOMET Euro-Asia Cooperation of Metrological National Institutions
EMLMF Euro-Mediterranean Legal Metrology Forum
EMP Erro Mximo Permitido
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
GDP Gross Domestic Product
IBGE Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica
INMETRO Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia
IO Input-Output
IP Insumo-Produto
ISO International Organization for Standardization
JISM Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology
LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas
MAA Mutual Acceptance Arrangement
MID Measuring Instrument Directive
MMI Mapping Measurement Impact
MPE Maximum Permissible Error
NIST Nacional Institute of Standards and Technology
NMI National Metrology Institute
OIML International Organization of Legal Metrology
PIB Produto Interno Bruto
PLOA Projeto de Lei Oramentria Anual
P&D Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento
R&D Research and Development
SADCMEL Southern African Development Community in Legal Metrology
SC Subcommittee
SI Sistema Internacional de Unidades
SIM Inter-American Metrology System
SME Small and Medium Enterprise
TC Technical Committee
UE Unio Europeia
VIM International Vocabulary of Metrology Basic and General Concepts and Associated
Terms
VIML International Vocabulary of Terms in Legal Metrology
WELMEC European Cooperation in Legal Metrology

SUMRIO

1 INTRODUO ................................................................................................................ 13
1.1

Contexto e problematizao .................................................................................................... 13

1.2

Objetivos.................................................................................................................................. 15

1.3

Justificativa .............................................................................................................................. 16

1.4

Organizao do trabalho .......................................................................................................... 17

2 REVISO DA LITERATURA ....................................................................................... 19


3 METODOLOGIA ............................................................................................................ 23
4 ARTIGO 1 - METROLOGIA LEGAL, ECONOMIA E SOCIEDADE: UMA
REVISO SISTEMTICA DA LITERATURA .......................................................... 26
5 ARTIGO 2 MODELO DE INSUMO-PRODUTO PARA AVALIAO DA
DISTORO ECONMICA NA METROLOGIA LEGAL ...................................... 36
6 ARTIGO 3 MEDIO DO IMPACTO ECONMICO DE FRAUDES
METROLGICAS UTILIZANDO O MODELO DE INSUMO-PRODUTO ........... 51
7 CONSIDERAES FINAIS .......................................................................................... 61
7.1

Concluses da pesquisa ........................................................................................................... 61

7.2

Desenvolvimentos futuros ....................................................................................................... 63

REFERNCIAS ............................................................................................................... 64

13

INTRODUO


1.1

Contexto e problematizao


A metrologia definida como cincia das medies tem como objetivo prover
confiabilidade a uma determinada medida por meio de uma cadeia contnua e ininterrupta de
calibraes com erros e incertezas conhecidas, ou seja, rastreabilidade (VIM, 2012). Desta
forma, possvel transmitir uma informao por meio de um padro primrio e difundi-la,
neste caso uma medio, com erros e incertezas conhecidas, garantindo que o resultado final
seja rastreado ao padro primrio. A definio formal de medio e instrumento de medio
dada a seguir:
Medio: processo de obteno experimental de um ou mais valores que podem ser
razoavelmente atribudos a uma grandeza (VIM, 2012, p.16).
Instrumento de medio: dispositivo utilizado para realizar medies,
individualmente ou associado a um ou mais dispositivos suplementares (VIM, 2012,
p.34).

A metrologia legal, segundo a Organizao Internacional de Metrologia Legal


(OIML), definida como:
Prtica e processo de aplicar metrologia uma estrutura legal e regulamentadora e
implementar sua execuo. (VIML, 2016, p. 8).

Desta forma, toda atividade de natureza metrolgica que alvo de algum tipo de ato
legal faz parte da metrologia legal, que em sua essncia a parte da metrologia responsvel
por garantir confiana economia e sociedade nos processos envolvendo pesos e medidas.
A metrologia legal tem um impacto significativo tanto na economia quanto na
sociedade, pois responsvel pela regulamentao de instrumentos de medio que so
utilizados no comrcio, indstria, sade e meio ambiente. O controle dos erros e incertezas de
medio influenciam diretamente na competitividade de um pas, ou seja, quanto menores os
desvios nas medies, menores sero as perdas (SANDERS, 2011). O impacto da metrologia
legal pode ser compreendido analisando-se os valores envolvidos em transaes baseadas em
pesos e medidas. Por exemplo, no Brasil, somente as transaes de importao e exportao
de petrleo e gs envolveram aproximadamente US$ 50,6 bilhes em 2012, correspondendo a
2,05% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) daquele ano (ANP, 2013; THE WORLD BANK,

14

2015). Similarmente, o valor agregado das medies envolvendo commodities excederam


50% do Produto Interno Bruto, em 1996, nos Estados Unidos (ARDIANTO, 2012). Da
mesma forma, a comercializao de produtos cujo valor est baseado em medies
correspondeu a 622 bilhes no Reino Unido, em 2002 (SANDERS, 2011).
A relevncia da metrologia tambm evidenciada no ambiente industrial. Um estudo
realizado no Brasil mostrou que 90% das empresas pesquisadas atriburam como alta ou
muito alta a importncia da metrologia como fator de competitividade (FERNANDES, 2010).
O controle provido pela metrologia legal executado pelas atividades de aprovao de
modelo, verificaes metrolgicas e superviso sobre os instrumentos de medio fabricados,
comercializados e utilizados no pas (KLENOVSKY, 2006). Estas atividades correspondem
ao controle metrolgico legal que, por meio do controle de erros de medio, entre outros
requisitos, reduz a distoro existente entre vendedor e comprador e traz consistncia ao
mercado.
Apesar dos impactos promovidos pela metrologia legal no serem totalmente
conhecidos (BOWNS et al., 2003), h a necessidade da medio quantitativa dos benefcios
providos, de forma a justificar a alocao de recursos mobilizados para execuo dos nveis
de controle e prover melhoria contnua nos processos para obter resultados melhores
(STIEFEL, 1973; BIRCH, 2004b). Dessa forma, o preo de um produto corresponde ao valor
envolvido na sua produo somado ao preo para verificar sua adequao ao mercado
(BABBAGE, 1832) e para um instrumento de medio em campo, este custo de verificao
corresponde s atividades de controle metrolgico legal.
Um indicador proposto para determinar este impacto, classificado como distoro
econmica, ou assimetria de mercado, corresponde ao valor associado ao erro advindo de uma
medio (STIEFEL, 1973), que pode vir de dois fatores distintos: um desvio proveniente de
variaes aleatrias nas caractersticas dos instrumentos de medio, ou um desvio
intencional com a finalidade de se obter vantagens financeiras, ou seja, uma fraude.
Consequentemente, um pequeno desvio de informao do que est sendo adquirido,
intencional ou no, pode ter um impacto significativo num mercado competitivo
(ROTHSCHILD e STIGLITZ, 1976).
Em um cenrio macroeconmico, a distoro econmica permite determinar a
quantidade monetria sob incerteza na economia devido a erros de medio. Esta assimetria
considerada uma da causas que podem levar uma economia a falhar, uma vez que o aumento
de preciso de um sistema metrolgico aumenta o retorno econmico (SWANN, 2009).

15

Portanto, um sistema de medio eficiente vital para a melhoria da economia de um


pas.
Neste contexto, para determinao da distoro econmica, a principal dificuldade
est na obteno de dados de produo e consumo de uma economia (STIEFEL, 1973). O
modelo de insumo-produto, que permite determinar o inter-relacionamento dos diversos
processos produtivos em uma economia (LEONTIEF, 1975), apresenta-se como uma
ferramenta adequada para tratar o impacto da distoro econmica ao longo de toda cadeia
produtiva.
Todavia, as pesquisas referentes metrologia legal so predominantemente
qualitativas, voltadas a justificar a importncia da metrologia legal em mbito nacional e
internacional, tais como: a necessidade de regulao devido globalizao dos mercados
(BIRCH, 2004a); harmonizao de requisitos em nvel internacional pelos acordos de
reconhecimento mtuo (BARKER, 2005); eliminao de barreiras tcnicas ao comrcio
(JUST, 2009); conscientizao dos impactos econmicos da metrologia (ARDIANTO, 2012);
percepo do impacto da metrologia em empresas de pequeno e mdio porte (PONCE;
LEONARD, 2010), entre outros.
Portanto, este trabalho prope o desenvolvimento de um mtodo baseado no modelo
de insumo-produto para avaliao dos impactos dos instrumentos de medio utilizados no
comrcio e na economia devido aos erros de medio destes instrumentos em campo. A
contribuio do modelo proposto neste trabalho a utilizao do modelo insumo-produto que
permite avaliar como o impacto advindo de erros de medio em um produto pode afetar toda
a economia.

1.2

Objetivos


O objetivo geral deste trabalho a avaliao do impacto da metrologia legal na
economia apoiada em uma formulao baseada no modelo de insumo-produto.
Para a realizao do objetivo geral, esta pesquisa foi dividida nos seguintes objetivos
especficos:
a) Contextualizar a pesquisa em relao ao estado da arte da metrologia legal,
caracterizando a relevncia e o ineditismo do trabalho;

16

b) Modelagem matemtica a partir do modelo de insumo-produto para a medio da


distoro econmica proveniente dos erros de medio dos instrumentos utilizados
em campo;
c) Simulao da distoro econmica com base na modelagem elaborada, utilizando
a matriz insumo-produto brasileira;
d) Medio emprica da distoro econmica tendo como exemplo o setor de
combustveis automotivos no Brasil e por meio dos relatrios de erros de medio
dos instrumentos em campo provenientes do Instituto Nacional de Metrologia no
Brasil, INMETRO.
e) Medio da distoro econmica advinda de desvios sistemticos intencionais nos
instrumentos de medio, ou seja, fraudes metrolgicas.

1.3

Justificativa


As medies que envolvem o comrcio so consideradas de extrema importncia para
os pases. Os valores envolvidos nestas transaes, por meio de medies seguidas, agregam
importncias que representam uma parte significativa do PIB.
A distoro econmica, ou seja, o valor associado aos erros de medio em transaes
comerciais, o indicador que permite calcular o valor econmico das medies na economia,
todavia uma modelagem matemtica que permita a comparao entre pases ainda uma
questo em aberto nesta rea do conhecimento. A assimetria de mercado implica no
desconhecimento completo do produto que est sendo adquirido. Alm disso, a assimetria de
informao entre compradores e vendedores pode ocasionar uma falha de mercado (SWANN,
2009).
Uma vez que os impactos da metrologia e das tecnologias de medio no so bem
conhecidos, os oramentos destinados pesquisa nesta rea esto sob constante presso
(BOWNS et al., 2003). Alm disto, a sociedade e demais instituies demandam o uso
racional de recursos (STIEFEL, 1973) e, especificamente no Brasil, onde os oramentos para
a rea da metrologia representaram, em 2014, valores da ordem de R$ 651,5 milhes (PLOA,
2014), a medio dos benefcios providos pelas atividades de metrologia legal so muito
importantes.

1.4

17

Organizao do trabalho


No captulo 1 deste estudo aborda-se a contextualizao e a problematizao, os
objetivos e justificativas. Apresenta-se uma breve introduo sobre os conceitos fundamentais
de metrologia e metrologia legal, assim como os principais pontos relevantes da rea e suas
aplicaes. So discutidos ainda os aspectos que justificam a importncia da realizao do
trabalho e os objetivos a serem alcanados no final da pesquisa.
Em seguida, no captulo 2, realizada a reviso da literatura sobre metrologia legal,
com foco na medio de seus impactos econmicos. So referenciados os trabalhos relevantes
publicados na rea e um relatrio emitido pela Organizao Internacional de Metrologia Legal
(OIML), no qual os trabalhos referenciados no foram publicados, ou por conter dados de
interesse nacional, ou por tratarem-se de estudos realizados por consultorias.
A partir do captulo 3, no qual estabelecida a metodologia utilizada na pesquisa, esta
tese tratada em formato de artigos, na qual os captulos referentes aos resultados obtidos
para atender aos objetivos especficos propostos. Os artigos apresentados foram aprovados ou
submetidos a peridicos de circulao internacional. A metodologia por artigos tem a
vantagem de permitir uma avaliao por pares das etapas realizadas e apresenta os objetivos
especficos concludos do trabalho.
No captulo 4, que representa o primeiro objetivo especfico do estudo, realizada
uma reviso sistemtica da literatura na rea da metrologia legal, com foco no controle
metrolgico legal, que contextualiza a pesquisa em relao ao estado da arte na metrologia
legal e caracteriza a relevncia e o ineditismo do trabalho proposto.
No captulo 5 so abordados o segundo, terceiro e quarto objetivos especficos
propostos nessa pesquisa, por meio da apresentao de: formulao matemtica proposta
baseada no modelo IP (insumo-produto) para a determinao da distoro econmica;
resultados das simulaes realizadas para diferentes produtos de importncia significativa
para a economia brasileira, utilizando-se os dados da matriz IP do Brasil e resultados do
clculo da distoro econmica para o setor de combustveis automotivos no Brasil,
utilizando-se dados de relatrios de erros de medio dos instrumentos no setor, do Instituto
Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia INMETRO, o organismo responsvel pela
metrologia legal no Pas.
O captulo 6 aborda o quinto objetivo especfico do estudo, no qual discutido e
avaliado o impacto econmico advindo de desvios propositais nos instrumentos de medio

18

utilizados na indstria e comrcio, exemplificado com dados empricos do setor de


combustveis brasileiro.
Finalmente, a concluso apresentada no captulo 7 e discute a importncia dos
resultados obtidos e a contribuio deste estudo, assim como os desenvolvimentos futuros
para pesquisas na rea.

19

REVISO DA LITERATURA


A metrologia legal, assim como a medio, se confunde com a histria da
humanidade, com o estabelecimento de um sistema de padres de comprimento, massa e
volume pela dinastia Shang, na China h 3.500 anos (JURAN, 1995). Outro exemplo remonta
a 3.000 anos atrs quando o profeta Shoaaib, que vivia na Jordnia, pediu a seu povo para
no utilizar dois pesos e duas medidas, uma para comprar e outra para vender (MELHEM,
2009). Historicamente, o controle metrolgico foi iniciado para regular o comrcio de
alimentos e, posteriormente, devido difuso para a sociedade, o comrcio e a tecnologia do
mecanismo tornou-se um sistema para o controle da confiabilidade das medies (BIRCH,
2004a).
Kenneth Arrow, laureado Prmio Nobel de economia em 1972, estudou a confiana
nas relaes econmicas e estabeleceu que h sempre uma relao de confiana nas trocas
comerciais e que muito do atraso no desenvolvimento mundial se deve falta de confiana
mtua (ARROW, 1974). Nesse contexto, a Organizao Internacional de Metrologia Legal
(OIML) foi criada em 1955, com o propsito de harmonizar a estrutura de metrologia legal e
requisitos por meio de polticas e recomendaes internacionais, para facilitar o crescimento
do comrcio global e reconhecimento mtuo entre pases (BARKER, 2005).
Assim, apesar das questes envolvendo confiana nas relaes comerciais e os
instrumentos de medio, h sempre um erro associado inexatido dos equipamentos
utilizados e, consequentemente, um valor associado a este erro, que quando se refere a um
valor em unidade monetria , em geral, descrito como uma distoro econmica ou
assimetria de informao (STIEFEL, 1973).
Esta assimetria de informao, tambm interpretada como falta de conhecimento
acerca do produto comercializado, pode levar excluso do produto do mercado devido
ineficincia da sociedade para o fluxo de informao assimtrica (STIGLITZ, 2002).
Somando-se questo dos erros de medio, de carter aleatrio, h tambm os erros
de medio sistemticos de carter intencional, ou seja, com o objetivo de se obter vantagem
sobre um comprador, denominados fraudes, que acarretam perdas conhecidas como custo da
desonestidade (AKERLOF, 1970). A concorrncia internacional est conduzindo as
empresas a margens cada vez mais apertadas o que aumenta o risco de desonestidade
(KOCHSIEK e SCHULZ, 2004). Um exemplo o setor de combustveis no qual as fraudes
variam de 6% a 12% do volume comercializado (LEITO, VASCONCELLOS e
BRANDO, 2014).

20

Apesar da importncia da metrologia associada ao comrcio, a literatura considerada


esparsa, porm em expanso (BOWNS et al., 2003; SWANN, 2009). Os estudos
contemplando a medio do impacto econmico dos instrumentos utilizados no comrcio
carecem de mtodos que forneam ferramentas para permitir a comparao entre pases.
Em 1973, um estudo apresentado por Stiefel mostra a importncia da medio deste
impacto econmico e prope um modelo de anlise estatstica, no qual a mdia dos erros de
medio dos instrumentos utilizados em campo, obtidos nos relatrios de erros de medio
dos rgos responsveis pelo controle metrolgico nos Estados Unidos, associada
comercializao de produtos. Contudo, Stiefel no apresenta um valor conclusivo uma vez
que os dados disponveis contabilizavam apenas os instrumentos de medio, com erros
acima de um valor definido. Sua contribuio foi a utilizao de dados empricos, porm
limitados pela sua disponibilidade.
Em 2003, um relatrio elaborado pelo membro honorrio da OIML, John Birch, fez
uma coletnea de estudos de impacto elaborados nas dcadas anteriores, em diversos pases,
sobre a importncia do impacto da metrologia legal no comrcio e na sociedade, retomando o
conceito de distoro econmica e enfatizando sua importncia. Os trabalhos foram
elaborados por consultorias e institutos nacionais de metrologia e no foram publicados; os
mesmos tinham como objetivo determinar o impacto econmico das medies, segundo a
anlise de Birch e esto listados a seguir:
a) O Bureau Nacional de Padres, agora NIST (National Institute of Standards and
Technology), nos EUA, durante os anos de 1967 at 1977, calculou o impacto da
metrologia na economia como sendo o valor total de mo de obra e equipamentos
da indstria;
b) Estudos conduzidos pelo organismo responsvel pela metrologia no Canad
(Measurement Canada) na dcada de 80 identificaram os valores comercializados
por instrumentos de medio e criaram um indicador de custo-benefcio,
comparando com os custos para manter o sistema metrolgico no pas. Ainda no
Canad, a consultoria KPMG, em 2001, utilizou uma metodologia para medir os
custos de manuteno de padres metrolgicos primrios e considerou os custos
para credenciamento, conforme as normas ISO 9000 e 14000, como indicador de
disposio de gastos com rastreabilidade.
c) O Departamento de Indstria e Comrcio do Reino Unido de 1988 a 1999
elaborou uma srie de estudos sobre medies, impacto econmico e P&D
(pesquisa e desenvolvimento). O ltimo estudo, em 1999, utiliza um mtodo que

21

compara o nmero de patentes relacionadas s medies com o total,


determinando assim o crescimento econmico devido metrologia.
d) Da mesma forma, o Projeto Europeu de Medio realizou estudos entre 2001 e
2002, que utilizaram a taxa de patentes relacionadas s medies como indicador
de contribuio da metrologia para a economia comparada com o total de gastos
da indstria.
A anlise dos trabalhos mencionados no relatrio de Birch permite identificar que os
estudos realizados por aqueles pases tentavam quantificar os impactos da metrologia legal
por meio de indicadores secundrios, tais como nmero de patentes na rea e custos de
credenciamentos em normas ISO, mas no se observa um mtodo que permita avaliar estes
impactos diretamente.
Em 2000, um estudo elaborado pelo NIST, nos Estados Unidos, explorou os
benefcios da pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D) em metrologia, com uma coletnea de
estudos formais e informais que discutia os impactos da metrologia na medio de colesterol,
materiais de referncia, indstria automotiva e gs natural (SEMERJIAN e WATTERS JR.,
2000). No que tange aos aspectos econmicos a abordagem do trabalho puramente
qualitativa e ressalta a importncia da harmonizao e padronizao.
Consecutivamente, em 2002, o Reino Unido conduziu um estudo de impacto sobre a
medio de sua infra-tecnologia. A matriz de insumo-produto foi utilizada para determinar
quais setores da economia so mais afetados economicamente pela P&D (TEMPLE e
WILLIAMS, 2002). Subsequentemente, em 2003 o Departamento de Indstria e Comrcio do
Reino Unido apresentou um modelo economtrico, denominado Mapping Measurement
Impact (MMI), para medir os benefcios econmicos da P&D (BOWNS et al., 2003).
Em 2004, Birch retoma o tema sobre a importncia da quantificao dos benefcios da
metrologia legal e pondera sobre a necessidade desta medio. Adicionalmente, em 2009
emitido um relatrio elaborado pelo Departamento de Comrcio do Reino Unido sobre o
impacto da metrologia em sua infraestrutura nacional e enfoca que as melhorias nas medies
podem diminuir os custos de transao entre fornecedores e consumidores e reduzir a
assimetria entre quem compra e quem vende, sendo esta uma fonte que pode levar um
mercado a falhar (SWANN, 2009).
Em seguida, uma srie de estudos descritivos enfatizaram os benefcios da metrologia
legal como fator regulador e controlador de mercado ao diminuir as distores e prover
benefcios economia (DUNMILL, 2009; CARSTENS, 2010; SANDERS, 2011;
ARDIANTO, 2012).

22

Em 2009, no Brasil, o INMETRO realizou o clculo da distoro econmica com


dados empricos somente dos instrumentos de medio que apresentavam erros de medio
nos quais o consumidor final era prejudicado, para o estado do Rio Grande do Sul. O
resultado apresentado nesse trabalho foi de R$ 45,55 milhes (DIAS, CALDAS e COSTA,
2010) e a metodologia proposta considerou apenas o consumidor final, no levando em conta
as transaes comerciais intermedirias nas quais tambm so agregadas perdas.
Finalmente, em 2012, foi proposto um modelo estatstico para a medio de perdas
devido diferena de padres de medio utilizados nas comparaes entre compradores e
vendedores. As entradas para o modelo proposto so a distribuio dos desvios dos produtos
comercializados, assim como os desvios dos padres de medio utilizados (USUDA e
HENSON, 2012). Este modelo contribuiu por tratar-se de uma proposta com formulao
reprodutvel e aplicvel em diversos casos, porm por abordar especificamente a
comercializao de produtos na relao individual entre comprador e vendedor, mais
aplicvel em relaes entre empresas ou no comrcio exterior entre pases.
O modelo de insumo-produto (IP) foi desenvolvido pelo economista Wassily Leontief,
professor de Harvard durante a dcada de 60 e laureado Prmio Nobel em economia em 1973.
O modelo de Leontief foi baseado nos trabalhos da Teoria do Equilbrio Geral de Lon
Walras.
O modelo IP baseado na hiptese de que os processos produtivos esto conectados e
o insumo de um processo o produto de outro. Esta interdependncia representada em um
sistema matricial de equaes (LEONTIEF, 1936). O mrito deste modelo descrever a
realidade econmica to prxima quanto possvel (DAVAR, 2000).
A anlise pela modelagem IP largamente utilizada em diversas reas, como na
produo de petrleo (KERSCHNER e HUBACEK, 2009), energia (ARBEX e PEROBELLI,
2010), consumo de gua (VELZQUEZ, 2006) e emisso de CO2 (SU et al., 2010).

23

METODOLOGIA


A pesquisa definida como um procedimento racional e sistemtico provendo
respostas aos problemas propostos (GIL, 2007). Desta forma, s h pesquisa quando h um
questionamento ou um problema a ser resolvido ou uma hiptese a ser testada. E, de forma a
se chegar a uma concluso ao tema estudado, aplica-se um mtodo, do grego methodos
(caminho para chegar a um fim) (GERHARDT e SILVEIRA, 2009), que permite a validao
da pesquisa assim como sua reprodutibilidade.
A abordagem da pesquisa deste trabalho quantitativa, por meio da medio e anlise
de dados referentes ao consumo intermedirio e demanda final na economia brasileira e aos
erros dos instrumentos de medio utilizados em campo, por meio de dados empricos.
Assim, para a sua construo foram aplicados os conceitos de pesquisa experimental, que
consiste na determinao do objeto de estudo, selecionar as variveis de influncia e
finalmente observar os efeitos que estas variveis produzem no fenmeno estudado (GIL,
2007). A Figura 1 relaciona os passos de uma pesquisa de procedimentos experimentais
relacionados com as etapas deste estudo.
Figura 1. Relacionamento das etapas deste estudo com uma pesquisa de procedimentos
experimentais

Pesquisa)de)procedimento)experimental)

Etapas)da)Pesquisa)
Determinao do objeto
de estudo

Determinao das
variveis de influncia,
formulao

Meios/Mtodos)

Efeitos das variveis


sobre o fenmeno
estudado

Fonte: prprio autor, 2016.

Reviso" Sistem<ca" da"


Literatura;"
Jus<ca<va;""
Inedi<smo"do"trabalho;"

Distoro"Econmica;""
Modelo" de" InsumoD
Produto;"

Simulao/Variao" dos"
parmetros" " (desvio" x"
distoro);"
Anlise"dos"resultados;"
Dados"empricos;"

24

Esse estudo est organizado em formato de artigos, no qual cada resultado da pesquisa
realizada demonstrado por meio de um trabalho aprovado ou submetido a um peridico,
cuja relevncia na rea da metrologia demonstrada pelo fator de impacto e indexao do
peridico. Este tipo de formato permite demonstrar a significncia dos resultados de pesquisa
por meio da reviso de pares para publicao, que relacionada a um indicador de qualidade
por basear-se na experincia e conhecimento do avaliador (BRINN, JONES e
PENDLEBURY, 2000).
Inicialmente, para identificar de forma consistente os avanos e contribuies na rea
da metrologia legal, assim como consubstanciar de maneira robusta o estudo proposto, foi
realizada uma reviso sistemtica da literatura na rea. Este tipo de reviso permite
identificar, avaliar, interpretar e sintetizar os estudos relevantes (DING et al., 2014) para
construir uma pesquisa com bases slidas e consistentes. Identificou-se tambm no haver
estudos realizados por meio deste tipo de reviso na rea da metrologia legal e ainda que a
ltima reviso foi realizada em 2003 (BIRCH, 2003), o que representa uma lacuna de
aproximadamente 10 anos para o estado da arte sobre o tema.
Uma vez constitudo o referencial terico que justifica a realizao da pesquisa e
comprova o seu ineditismo, foi realizada a modelagem matemtica para a avaliao da
distoro econmica baseada no modelo de insumo-produto proposto pelo economista
Wassily Leontief (LEONTIEF, 1975). A abordagem por esta formulao se justifica por
tratar-se de um modelo econmico consolidado e amplamente utilizado.
Estabelecida a formulao matemtica foram utilizados os dados advindos das
matrizes nacionais de usos e recursos publicadas pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e
Estatstica (IBGE, 2008), que so a base para o clculo da matriz de insumo-produto
brasileira. A metodologia aplicada para a determinao destes dados normalizada pela
Organizao das Naes Unidas (ONU, 1999).
Para o clculo da distoro econmica no setor de combustveis foram utilizados
dados secundrios obtidos nos relatrios de erros de medio do Instituto Nacional de
Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia - INMETRO. Estes dados foram provenientes
diretamente do sistema de informao integrado (SILVA et al., 2014) do instituto para
consolidar as informaes das medies no comrcio e na indstria. Os resultados de ensaios
esto alinhados recomendao internacional estabelecida pela Organizao Internacional de
Metrologia Legal (OIML R118, 1995).

25

Finalmente, utilizando a formulao proposta, foi realizada a avaliao do impacto


econmico oriundo de fraudes no setor para se obter o custo da desonestidade para a
economia.
A Figura 2 mostra o inter-relacionamento entre os captulos do trabalho e as sees
dos artigos apresentados, contemplando o objetivo geral da pesquisa. Tambm possvel
visualizar como as sees dos artigos representam um objetivo especfico.
Figura 2. Constituio do objetivo geral por meio dos objetivos especficos e artigos e sees
de artigos elaborados que representam cada objetivo especfico da tese

Objetivo Geral

Avaliao"do"impacto"da"metrologia"legal"na"economia"u<lizando"
formulao"baseado"no"Modelo"de"InsumoDProduto.

Obje%vos)Especcos))

1""Contextualizar"a"pesquisa"em"relao"ao"estado"da"arte"na"metrologia"legal," "caracterizando"a"
relevncia"e"o"inedi<smo"do"trabalho."
2" " Modelagem" matem<ca" a" par<r" do" Modelo" de" InsumoDProduto" para" a" medio" da" distoro"
econmica"proveniente"dos"erros"de"medio"dos"instrumentos"u<lizados"em"campo."
3""Simulao"da"distoro"econmica"com"base"na"modelagem"elaborada"u<lizando"a"matriz"insumoD
produto"brasileira."
4" " Medio" emprica" da" distoro" econmica" u<lizando" como" exemplo" o" setor" de" combusMveis"
automo<vos"no"Brasil,"u<lizando"relatrios"de"erros"de"medio"dos"instrumentos"em"campo"provenientes"
do"ins<tuto"nacional"de"metrologia"no"Brasil,"INMETRO.""

5""Avaliao"do"impacto"econmico"devido"a"fraudes"em"instrumentos"de"medio"u<lizando"como"exemplo"
o"setor"de"combusMveis"automo<vos"no"Brasil."

Artigos
Ar<go"1""Obj."1"

Captulo)4)+Legal)metrology,)the)economy)and)society:)A)systema;c)literature)review"

Sees"5"e"6"do"Ar<go"2""Obj."2"

Captulo)5)+)Formulao))

Seo"7.1"do"Ar<go"2""Obj."3"

Captulo)5))Simulando)a)distoro)econmica)

Seo"7.2"do"Ar<go"2""Obj."4"

Captulo)5)Medindo)a)distoro)econmica)

Ar<go"3""Obj."5"

Captulo)6))Distoro)econmica)devido)a)fraude)

Fonte: prprio autor, 2016.

26

ARTIGO 1 -

METROLOGIA LEGAL, ECONOMIA E SOCIEDADE: UMA

REVISO SISTEMTICA DA LITERATURA



Neste captulo apresentada uma reviso sistemtica da literatura no mbito da
metrologia legal, com enfoque nas atividades relacionadas, ou impactadas pelo controle
metrolgico legal. O artigo atende ao primeiro objetivo especfico desse trabalho e foi
publicado na revista Measurement - Journal of the Measurement Confederation, ano 2015,
volume n.o 69, pginas 155 a 163.
A reviso sistemtica foi utilizada por ser um processo lgico e consistente que
organiza e identifica contribuies no campo estudado. Desta forma, foi possvel caracterizar
o ineditismo do trabalho proposto, assim como identificar as principais pesquisas e
desenvolvimentos na rea.
Foram selecionados 59 estudos que foram divididos em quatro categorias distintas:
economia e sociedade; comrcio internacional; controle metrolgico legal; metrologia legal
em pases em desenvolvimento.
No comrcio internacional, as pesquisas esto voltadas para a harmonizao de
sistemas de medio e acordos de reconhecimento mtuo para dirimir as barreiras tcnicas ao
comrcio, em nvel global.
Com relao aos trabalhos vinculados s atividades do controle metrolgico legal e
metrologia legal em pases em desenvolvimento, as publicao so descritivas e mostram as
atividades realizadas por diversos pases, os avanos alcanados pela implementao do
controle metrolgico. Tambm pde ser verificado o impacto positivo de acordos e formaes
de blocos regionais, com o intuito de troca de experincias, treinamentos e intercmbio de
conhecimento na rea da metrologia legal.
Finalmente, na rea de economia e sociedade, os estudos esto focados principalmente
no impacto da metrologia legal e em aspectos de mbito econmico voltados para a defesa do
consumidor, que pode ser representado por um indivduo ou por uma empresa que adquire
produtos com valores baseados em medies.
Assim, como concluso constatada a necessidade de medio dos benefcios da
metrologia legal, ainda uma questo em aberto nesta linha de pesquisa.

27

Measurement 69 (2015) 155163

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Measurement
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement

Legal metrology, the economy and society: A systematic


literature review
Bruno A. Rodrigues Filho a,, Rodrigo F. Gonalves b
a
National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, Legal Metrology Directory, Nossa Senhora das Graas Av., 50 Xerm Duque de Caxias,
RJ 25250-020, Brazil
b
Paulista University, Industrial Engineering Department, Dr. Bacelar St., 1212, 4th floor Vila Clementino, So Paulo, SP 04026-002, Brazil

a r t i c l e
Article history:
Received 7 October
Received in revised
Accepted 20 March
Available online 28

i n f o
2014
form 8 February 2015
2015
March 2015

Keywords:
Legal metrology
Developing countries
Measuring instrument
Legal metrological control

a b s t r a c t
This study carries out a literature review regarding legal metrological control and its
impact on society and the economy. A systematic, logical and consistent process has been
used to organize and extract the contributions of published academic studies in the field. A
systematic literature review process has also been shown to be an appropriate tool to
manage and organize the growing number of databases for articles and journals, allowing
the identification of relevant contributions.
A total of 59 studies were selected and categorized based on four different approaches:
the economy and society, international trade, legal metrological control, and metrology in
developing countries. The 59 selected articles are discussed in order to explore the state of
the art concerning legal metrology, with a focus on legal metrological control. On the basis
of these categories, open issues were also identified in order to suggest future studies in the
field.
! 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Legal metrology has a significant impact on society and
the economy, both in terms of regulating measuring
instruments to ensure consumer protection and because
it lowers measuring uncertainties in measurement instruments, which has consequences for countries national
competitiveness. Legal metrologys economic impact can
be easily understood by analyzing the money involved in
measurements. For example, Brazilian oil and gas imports
and exports alone were worth US$ 50.6 billion [1] in
2012. Similarly, as commodities move from point of
production to final sale they are measured multiple times
for a range of transactions, like sales, freight and taxes.
The aggregate values of these transactions exceed 50% of
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 2679 9175.

E-mail address: bafilho@inmetro.gov.br (B.A. Rodrigues Filho).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2015.03.028
0263-2241/! 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

gross national product of the US in 1996 [2]. Likewise,


622 billion worth of goods whose value was based on measurement were sold in the United Kingdom in 2002 [52].
The social aspects of legal metrology concern both
security and consumer protection. Consumers are vulnerable when they purchase goods whose worth is based on
measurement if they are unable to evaluate the amount
of product traded. Additionally, the inadequate use of measuring instruments can produce incorrect measurements
[52]. In the security field, it has been shown that
Australia significantly reduced the number of accidental
deaths and injuries due to safety enforcement requirements [4] utilizing measuring instruments such as radar
speed devices and breathalyzers.
Legal metrological control comprises activities in legal
metrology, including verifications and surveillance in
measuring instruments before and after they are released
to the market [62]. Checking for errors to enforce trust in

28

156

B.A. Rodrigues Filho, R.F. Gonalves / Measurement 69 (2015) 155163

measurements reduces unfair competition and ensures


consistency in trade.
When legal metrology is related to the economy,
society, health and the environment, an improvement in
legal metrological control represents an improvement in
the entire ecosystem, which improves overall efficiency.
Thus, increasing efficiency in legal metrological control
means increasing confidence in the measurement instruments under legal metrological regulation.
In this sense, this study aims to identify the
contributions to the legal metrological control process,
thus allowing us to verify developments across countries
and to contribute to the field of legal metrology by
summarizing recent advances, identifying gaps in development, and providing support to eventual future studies to
be carried out in legal metrology.
2. Methodology
A systematic literature review was carried out to identify the development and progress of legal metrology with
a focus on legal metrological control and its impact on
society and the economy. Because peer review is a typical
indicator of quality in research that is based on the
reviewers direct expertise and knowledge [13], articles
published in journals, conferences, congresses and
symposiums proceedings were considered. A 10-year time
limit for sample studies was set in order to incorporate
only recent studies. The search for articles was divided into
three steps [20] so that only relevant studies in the field of
legal metrological control would be included. The first step
was to identify articles based on a string search in all fields
of relevant electronic databases; Table 1 shows the strings
used.
The second step was to check article titles and abstracts
to identify whether articles were in fact related to the
relationship between economic and social development
and legal metrological control.
The third step comprised the analysis of the full text
and the decision to incorporate articles according to the
exclusion/inclusion criteria [20], as shown in Table 2.
Additionally, after identifying contributions to legal
metrology that were published in journals, we conducted
individual searches for relevant articles in conference proceedings that were not linked to electronic databases.
Table 3 shows the electronic databases, journals and
proceedings across which we performed our search.
Fig. 1 shows the flow of the systematic review process.
Table 4 presents the selected studies.

Table 1
Strings used to search electronic databases.
String
METROLOGY;
METROLOGY AND LEGAL METROLOGY;
METROLOGY AND LEGAL METROLOGY AND (ECONOMY OR
ECONOMIC);
METROLOGY AND LEGAL METROLOGY AND (ECONOMY OR
ECONOMIC) AND (SOCIETY OR SOCIAL);

Table 2
Selection criteria for article inclusion and exclusion.
Criteria
Inclusion

Exclusion

The theme of study is the impact of legal metrology on


the economy and society
The study is related to improvements in legal
metrological control
The article is related to metrology, but not legal
metrology
The article approaches improvements to an individual
measuring instrument

Table 3
Journals and electronic databases that were searched.
Journals and electronic database
ScienceDirect
Web of knowledge
Scopus
IOPScience
International organization of legal metrology bulletin
Acta IMEKO online journal
International measurement confederation world congress imeko
proceedings
International conference of metrology CAFMET proceedings
International symposium of metrology proceedings
International congress of metrology proceedings

3. Results and discussion


The systematic literature review process was conducted
from February to April 2014 over electronic databases,
journals and proceedings, according to Table 3. The results
of each step of the search are listed in Fig. 2, which shows
that a total of 59 studies were incorporated in this review.
To organize the developments in the legal metrological
control literature, the selected studies were divided in four
categories according to their focus: economy and society;
legal metrological control; international trade; and legal
metrology in developing countries.
Each study was placed in only one category, and Table 5
shows the number of studies by category (selected studies
listed by title with their category included are shown in
Table 4).
3.1. Economy and society
Measuring instruments used in trade impact both
society and the economy. Weights and measures were initially used to control food in trade, and due to a widespread social, transportation and technological evolution,
local markets have become national and global, expanding
the need for a system to ensure the reliability of measurements [5].
These measurements are present in consumers everyday lives, especially today, when they are the basis of
charges for the use of water, electricity, gas, fuel, food
and other vital components of daily life. Society is
impacted by measurements, and once people become
vulnerable to measurements, they are unable to verify
measurements reliability [52]. The state plays a significant

29

B.A. Rodrigues Filho, R.F. Gonalves / Measurement 69 (2015) 155163

157

Fig. 1. Systematic search process for articles to be considered in the study, adapted from [20].

part in this game, especially because regulation is necessary in some areas to guarantee accurate measures. The
relationship between the state and legal metrology can
be therefore defined as symbiotic [5]: legal metrology
needs the state to regulate, and the state needs accurate
measurement to organize, plan, defend and tax efficiently.
Compared to scientific metrology, the consumer protection
aspects of legal metrology are realized through
verifications based on consumer protection requirements,
as compared to calibration [51].
An important example of the social impact of legal
metrology is the reduction of deaths and injuries from
accidents due to speed cameras [6]. To give another
example, there are taxes based on measurements. Thus, the
governments regulation of measurement instruments used
in trade in order to provide confidence in measurements that
affect society and the economy is more cost-effective than
de-regulating the instruments [52]. In essence, a solid
metrology system is vital to the economy [16].
The International Organization of Legal Metrology
(OIML) was created with the purpose of harmonizing legal
metrological structures and requirements through policy
and recommendations, facilitating the growth of the global
market and mutual acceptance among countries [3], and
promoting social and economic welfare. The OIML uses
Technical Committees (TC) and Subcommittees (SC) to
build consensus in legal metrology issues among its
members [61]. OIML and the International Organization
for Standardization are also considered as standardizing
bodies in the sense of the Technical Barrier to Trade
Agreement of the World Trade Organization [27]. The
harmonization of international standards and procedures
is an effective tool for reducing asymmetries in international trade scenarios [58].
Environmental issues form another relevant aspect of
legal metrology. Concerns about the unsustainable current

model of globalization are leading OIML to invest resources


in environmental recommendations, essentially using legal
metrology to produce more while using less [9]. The use of
the International System of Units (SI) is also recommended
in environmental guides to harmonize the measurement
units between countries; carbon trading is also part of
the process to protect the environment [59].
Although studies have been conducted in countries
such as the US, Canada and Australia that identify the
importance of measurement in both society and the economy, a quantitative indicator of benefits generated by legal
metrology is still missing. The economic distortion or
asymmetry that represents the money in the risk
associated with measurement errors [6] is an open issue
in legal metrology. A model using linear regression to
relate a product certification to production and monetary
inflation was created in order to assess the economic
impact of product certification [58]. A similar study could
be conducted in legal metrology using economic distortion.
The regulation of metrology results in benefits to
society and the economy. A countrys decision to regulate
(or not) a specific area depends on that country alone.
Because each country has its own needs, the impact of regulation on any area must be thoroughly investigated.
Applying similar requirements to developed and developing economies does not mean the latter will be successful;
national differences and particularities must be considered. Economic aspects are always examined during the
regulation process; however, social welfare should be
always considered, and carefully considered regulations
will lead to the development of the economy.
3.2. International trade
In the international arena where economies are
connected, especially in countries whose economies are

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Table 4
Selected studies by topic category.
Selected study

ARDIANTO, R. A way to stimulate public awareness


BARKER, J. The OIML and the purpose of international recommendations
BIRCH, J. The expanding scope of legal metrology and the changing role of the
state in a globalised world
BIRCH, J. Economic and Social Benefits of Legal Metrology
BIRCH, J. Legislating for metrology in developing countries
BIRDSEYE, M. The Measuring Instruments Directive (MID)
BIRDSEYE, M.; AWASOLA, M. Basic requirements for legal metrology in
Developing economies
BRANDO, P. Contramedidas de hardware y software sobre el fraude de alta
tecnologa al Surtidor de combustible bajo el alcance de Metrologa Legal
BREUGEL, P. V. Metrology in a global market
BREUGEL, P. V. Views from a notified body towards global acceptance
BUZAC, E.; IONECU, F. Metrology and standardization: Infrastructure
components of a modern society
CARSTENS, S. AFRIMETS (IntraAfrica Metrology System)
CARSTENS, S. The benefits of the sound legal metrology system to an economy
CHAPPELL, S. Opportunities and future trends in legal metrology control of
measuring instruments
CRENNA, F.; ROSSI, G. B.; BOVIO, L. Probabilistic measurement evaluation for the
implementation of the Measuring Instrument Directive
DE SILVA, G. M. S. Development of metrology in developing economies
DINU, D.; POENARU, M.-M.; DINU, C. Considerations on the evolution of
metrological concepts
DUNMILL, I. New cooperation agreement on metrology to combat technical
barriers to trade and spur economic growth
FLOCKEN, D.; TONINI, D. The pattern approval process: The past, present and
future as seen by US instrument manufacturers
GARRIDO GALERA, V. On the new frame of the legal metrology in Spain
GAUCHER, R. Extension of the ILAC/OIML Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) to the IAF (International Accreditation Forum)
IACOBESCU, F. et al. Preoccupation at national level, in Romania, concerning
standardization in the field of electrical energy
JUST, S. The Memorandum of Understanding between ISO and the OIML
KLENOVSKY, P. Legal metrological control over measuring instruments in use:
current situation
KOCHSIEK, M. Thailand: Progress in legal metrology
KOCHSIEK, M. Technical cooperation between India and Germany in the field of
legal metrology
KOCHSIEK, M. Improvement of legal metrology in India
KOCHSIEK, M.; SCHULZ, W. Modernization of legal metrology in Germany
KONONOGOV, S. A. Strategy used in implementing the new Federal Law on the
assurance of measurement uniformity
LAGAUTERIE, G. The evolution of the metrological control of measuring
instruments in France
LAGAUTERIE, G.; PECCHIOLI, G. Accreditation and legal metrology in France
LALLA-RODRIGUES, D. The Inter-American Metrology System (SIM) 2003/2004
MARNEWECK, J. The need for harmonization of technical regulations within
Africa to facilitate across border trade
MCCONNELL, K. MERCOSUR: Mercado Comun del Sur
MELHEM, O. Jordanian Metrology System: Reality and aspirations
NITESCU, D. Design a successful architecture for measurement control system in
legal metrology
OOSTERMAN, C.; DIXON, P. NoBoMet: A European platform for Notified Bodies
working in Legal Metrology
OPPERMANN, H. NISTs role in weights and measures
POHLMANN FILHO, O. et al. Innovaciones de INMETRO en la gestin de la Red
Brasileira de Metrologa Legal y Calidad
PONCE, R.; VASALLO, A.; LEONARD, H. The impacts of metrology
PONCE, Y. R. Conformity assessment and metrology
PONCE, Y. R.; LEONARD, A. R. H. Public perception of metrology in the Republic
of Cuba
PONCE, Y. R.; VERA, R. C. S.; PALOU, H. M. S. Metrology and the various forms of
non-state employment
ROCHA, G. M.; LANDIM, R. P. Inmetros Metrology Executive Masters Degree
Course

Economy
and
society

International
trade

Legal
metrological
control

Legal metrology in
developing
countries

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

31

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B.A. Rodrigues Filho, R.F. Gonalves / Measurement 69 (2015) 155163


Table 4 (continued)
Selected study

Economy
and
society

RODRIGUES FILHO, B. A. et al. Enhancements of the legal metrological control in


Brazil due to after repair verification
RODRIGUES FILHO, B. A.; SILVA, M. E. The PSIE platform as a tool to improve
metrological control in Brazil
RUNSHENG, D.; JIANPING, H. The relationship between calibration, verification
and metrological confirmation
SANDERS, R. Why do we regulate measuring instruments used for trade
SCHULZ, W. Changes in consumer protection in legal metrology as a result of
new technologies
SEILER, E.; DUNMILL, I. Announcing the OIML Award for Excellent contributions
from Developing Countries to legal metrology
SENNA, M. J. H. Legal metrology in the Inter-American Metrology System (SIM)
SILVA, A. N. R. S. et al. Development of a system to increase the legal
metrological control of measuring instruments in Brazil
THOMPSON, A. Perspectives on assurance of conformity to type
TICONA, J. M.; FROTA, M. N. Assessment of the economic impact of product
certification: A significant area of application of measurement
VELYCHKO, O.; GORDIYENKO, T. The use of metrological terms and SI units in
environmental guides and international standards
VELYCHKO, O.; GORDIYENKO, T. Implementation of the European Directive on
Measuring Instruments in Ukraine
VELYCHKO, O.; GORDIYENKO, T. Metrological activities between the TCs of the
OIML and other International Organizations
VUKOVIC, N. M.; KOVSE, I. Slovenian experiences in establishing a modern
system of legal metrology
WILLIS, I. Afrimets a perspective of the legal metrology leg and progress to date

Fig. 2. Results of each step of the systematic process.

Table 5
Number of selected studies by category.
Category

Number of studies

Economy and society


International trade
Legal metrological control
Metrology in developing countries

11
09
18
21

commodity-based, accuracy in measurement is a way to


protect the economy. Economic losses grow as consequence of high uncertainty [2]. Technical barriers are also
recognized as the major obstacle between developing
countries and countries with economies in transition [22].
As countries are becoming more connected, harmonization, mutual confidence, and recognition are becoming
more necessary to facilitate trade [45]. In another consequence of globalization, manufacturers are producing measuring instruments that are distributed to a wide range of
countries, yet another reason that the harmonization of
requirements worldwide is desirable [11]. Consequently,
and because an understanding of in-service operations
has a larger impact on consumer protection, conformity
assessment activities (CAAs) have been introduced as a
substitute for initial verifications, especially in free trade

International
trade

Legal
metrological
control

Legal metrology in
developing
countries

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

areas [28]. These CAAs allow a manufactory to carry out


the activities of legal metrological control themselves
under certain conditions, and mutual acceptance agreements are possible mainly due to the harmonization of
requirements [17]. However, CAAs must be followed by a
surveillance process covering the testing or inspection of
samples on the market, as well as inspections of the
manufacturer, system quality audits and the assessment
of production processes [57].
The 1980s and 1990s were characterized by the
development and establishment of competency requirements for calibration and testing laboratories, as well as
the creation of certifying bodies. The OIML Certificated
System for Measuring Instruments was also implemented in 1991 [17], allowing the recognition of type
approval between countries. The next decade saw the
implementation of another tool to connect countries, the
OIML Mutual Acceptance Arrangement (MAA), which
allows countries to use the results of tests of measuring
instruments performed in accredited laboratories in different countries. The MAA does need improvement, however:
there are still technical barriers for manufacturers in
many countries [12]. Through prepackages, OIML has
started work to develop a mark that will facilitate the
commercialization of prepackaged goods [25].
International trade plays a major role in legal
metrology, and international commerce is highly relevant
to national economies due to globalization. Technical
barriers to trade are still an obstacle to be overcome. The
formation of economic blocks is an additional remaining
challenge to harmonizing regulations in metrology; in
Europe, for example, manufacturers located in developing
countries are subject to the same requirements as manufacturers in developed countries.

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3.3. Legal metrological control


To establish a legal metrology system, legal requirements should be applied where they are essential to local
development. The understanding of concepts of measurement is also important. The international vocabulary of
metrology (and legal metrology) and a guide to the
expressions of uncertainty in measurement were the tools
introduced to harmonize the concepts [21]. Regulation is
usually also applied to measurement instruments
regarding health, safety, and some industrial activities. In
addition to the legal framework, national standards,
traceability and an organizational structure staffed by
competent people are necessary. A national metrology
institute (NMI) is required to keep and maintain standards,
but private laboratories are also needed in order to spread
the traceability of national standards [19].
Legal metrological control comprises the activities in
legal metrology that are responsible for metrological
assurances in measuring instruments. This set of activities
includes the following:
! Legal control of measuring instruments.
! Metrological supervision.
! Metrological expertise.
The legal control of measuring instruments corresponds
to type approval and initial and subsequent verifications
(mandatory periodic verification and after repair
verification).
While type approval and verifications are called first
level activities [34], a second level of activities, metrological supervision, is necessary for more complex measurement instruments. Metrological supervision comprises:
! Quality system surveillance (in authorized bodies for
self-verification).
! Market surveillance (in the measuring instrument
before it is sent to market).
! Field surveillance (in the measuring instrument in use).
While quality system surveillance and market surveillance are focused on the manufactory, field surveillance
is concerned with the instrument in use.
Technical developments in measurement instruments
have also influenced legal metrological control; because
most instruments today are controlled by software, confidence in measurement is connected to software reliability.
These factors must also be part of the development of
surveillance [53].
In France after 2001, the modernization of the legal
metrology system was based on implementing the second
level activities executed by the government, defined as the
surveillance of operators; surveillance of instruments in
service; and market surveillance. The first level that can
be executed by the private sector comprises type approval;
initial verification; verification of installation; and periodic
verification [34].
To implement metrological control to assure confidence
in measurements, two basic systems are currently in use:
the first is financially supported by the user/manufactory

of the instrument by charging an administrative fee (the


Dutch model), and second is supported by the government
(the American model). The Dutch model is applied within
the European Union and to activities carried out by a single
government body, mostly the NMI. The system itself is
responsible for confidence once there are operations in
fixed intervals. In the American model, the user of the
instrument is responsible for keeping that instrument
correctly calibrated, and the operations carried out by the
government, whether state or municipality, merge inspection and verification. The disadvantage of this model is its
inherent dependence on government funding [28].
Especially in the US, to monitor the national system, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is
responsible for developing regulations for measuring
instruments, maintaining national standards, and ensuring
American compliance with legal metrology standards
throughout the world [42]. In 2004 it was revealed that
legal metrology would also incorporate a quality management system for the production of measurement instruments and the manufacturers declaration of individual
instruments conformity with the requirements of the initial verification; subsequent verification to provide market
surveillance; and the exchange of information among
countries with established mutual acceptance arrangements with regard to type approval [23].
In Europe, the Measuring Instruments Directive (MID)
was created in order to eliminate legislative barriers to
trade measurement instruments. It was elaborated to
cover 95% of all measurement instruments sold in Europe
and specifies the metrological performance of those
instruments. Although the MID is a directive that is applied
to measurement instruments controlled in the EU, there is
a great interest from the international community for
several reasons. First, it is a document about conformity
assessment; it also employs the latest techniques in
European legislation and is one of the New Approach
directives. Furthermore, it brings together the principles
of efficient regulation and minimal restriction of
commerce and technology, and it must be followed by
anyone who wishes to export measurement instruments
to the EU [8]. The implementation of the MID mobilized
the EU countries and generated expectations concerning
metrological control in its member states [24]. Its implementation may promote innovation, thereby leading to
social benefits and customer satisfaction [18].
Germany, which has a well-established legal metrology
structure, executes about two million verifications per
year, covering measurement instruments and the
surveillance of repairers and prepackaged, as well as the
verification of 18 million electric, gas and heat meters
annually. The modernization of German legal metrology
is focused on new technologies, particularly because measurement instruments are becoming more complex and
thus demand more extensive tests. One example is the creation of software requirements for metrological instruments. Another aspect is surveillance, especially because
global competition has led to tighter profit margins, in
the energy market, for example, and the risk is high [32].
French regulators have also discussed accreditation in
legal metrology as a way to harmonize the proceedings

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performed by notified bodies. One of the points discussed


is that previous authorization is necessary prior to accreditation because a bodys competence can only be evaluated
when it is already carrying out the tasks of legal metrology
control. It is also noted that accreditation does not render
state surveillance unnecessary [35].
Information systems and therefore the amount of data
available in legal metrology have also been increasing in
recent years. The NOBOMET platform was implemented
to maintain a high quality level for services regarding
notified bodies performance of MID-based conformity
assessments in the EU [41]. A suite of software was also
proposed to assist in the implementation of MID, modeling
the behavior of the measurement instruments under field
conditions [18]. To manage data flows, enterprises
resource planning (ERP) systems are also in use [56].
Further, to bolster the impartiality of repairs executed by
notified bodies, a supervision system is being implemented
[50], allowing fraud to be more easily identified [10]. In
after repair verification specifically, the number of verified
measuring instruments are increasing significantly [49], as
are the number of information systems implemented [43].
An information system to evaluate prepackaged measurement instruments is also under development [40].
Legal metrological control aims to prevent error in measurement instruments in excess of a maximum level established by regulations and guarantee consumer protection
and fair competition. The amount of data required to
implement this type of control includes errors for each
measuring instrument on the market during verifications,
specifications of repairs executed by notified bodies and
errors in after-repair verifications. This data flow may provide relevant information that can be applied to improve
control, such as the variation of measurement errors along
the life of the measurement instrument, the quality of
repairs, and other factors. Information systems tools allow
vast amounts of data to be analyzed and must be considered for use in legal metrology.
3.4. Legal metrology in developing countries
Recently, the research interest in developing countries
has increased, mainly because of the growth in their
economies [7] and the widespread perception of the
importance of legal metrology to a solid economy [15].
It is also noteworthy that the development of legal
metrology in developing countries is especially focused
on consumer protection. Some developing countries tend
to follow the legal metrology system already in use in
developed countries mainly due to the advantages of technology transfer, but this course may be inappropriate
when there are significant differences between the needs
of their economies and societies and that of the model
country [7]. To incentivize and highlight the importance
of legal metrology in developing countries, OIML has established the Award for Excellent Contributions to Legal
Metrology from Developing Countries [54].
This section of the review aims to illustrate the
advances in legal metrology in developing countries over
the last ten years by briefly describing the relevant published studies in the sample.

161

In Cuba, legal metrology has been characterized by indicators measuring its scientific, technological, economic,
social and environmental impact [44]. The impact of legal
metrology was further shown by case studies [46], and
the industrial perspective on legal metrology was shown
by studies of small and medium size enterprises (SME).
These studies concluded that the lack of knowledge about
the importance of measurements is a cause for concern
[47].
In the Americas, the Inter-American Metrology System
(SIM) was established with the purpose of building and
supporting a metrological structure, facilitating international trade and ensuring uniformity of measurements
[36]. The SIM has allowed the exchange of expertise and
materials between countries with developed legal metrology systems and countries lacking such services. SIMs
main activity has been training activities, demand for
which is expected to be high once legal metrology
structures have been implanted and begin to expand
among members [55]. In South America, the Metrology
Committee of Mercosul works on harmonizing legislation
to be incorporated into member states legislation [38].
Additionally, as a response to provide qualified human
resources, Brazil has created an executive masters degree
that covers legal metrology [48].
In Europe, although Romania is a developing country,
its standardization efforts in the field of electrical energy
measurements have been studied as a result of new
legislation aiming at providing consumer protections that
are compliant with the requirements of the European
Union [26]. Romanian manufacturers are committed to
complying with European directives, aligning their
products to the EU market and increasing Romanias competitiveness in Europe [14].
Slovenia, another member of the EU, follows the EUs
legal metrology system, and has assigned the outsourcing
of verifications to designated bodies that performed more
than 90% of verification in 2008. The national requirements
for these bodies are providing adequate support to the
national economy; the ability to evaluate both the private
and public sectors; and possessing the infrastructure for
verification and adequate metrological supervision [63].
Like Romania, Ukraine is working to harmonize its legal
metrology system within the European Directive on
Measuring Instruments in order to ensure a free trade
relationship in the European Union [60].
Jordan is an example of a developing country implanting legal metrological controls while facing limited
resources, a small number of industries, and limited
metrology knowledge and equipment [39]. The role of
the Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology (JISM)
is to ensure that only safe, good quality products enter
the market. Despite its limitations, Jordan has 14 types of
measurement instruments under legal control as well as
prepackaged products.
In 2008, Russia adopted a new metrology law establishing the basis for a metrology system that protects citizens
and assists national economic development [33].
In Asia, Thailand has German support to develop a
national legal metrology system. Its actual infrastructure
comprises five verification offices where 160 officers and

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160 assistants inspect scales, fuel dispensers, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), medical measurement units, humidity
meters and prepackaged products [29].
India selected Germany as a model to implement the
privatization of some legal metrology activities in both initial and subsequent verification and type approval due to
public sector difficulties in following the growing
responsibilities of legal metrology. India has established
several criteria for the delegated private bodies, including
organizational independence, financial independence, professional integrity, technical competency, staff qualification, impartiality, insurance coverage, and professional
secrecy. However, the overall responsibility for ensuring
reliable legal metrology services remains with the government [30]. Ultimately, the authorities plan to incorporate
the European Measuring Instrument Directive in the
Indian implementation of legal metrology [31].
In Africa, measurement systems do not fulfill the
requirements of an effective measuring system, especially
those based on colonial measurements that operate in an
isolated manner. However, the increasing concern for the
importance of legal metrology to society and the economy
has led Africa, with German support, to create the SIMbased Intra-Africa Metrology System (AFRIMETS) [64] in
order to harmonize measurements in Africa [15], based
on the harmonization of regulations among countries [37].
It is evident that over the last decade, developing countries have begun implementing legal metrology systems
and recognizing the importance of metrology to their
economies and consumer protection. Agreements among
countries, both developed and developing, facilitate the
exchange of experiences. The SIM in the Americas, the
WELMEC in Europe and the AFRIMETS in Africa are examples of success. Other agreements that are active but were
not discussed in sample articles include the Asia Pacific
Legal Metrology Forum (APLMF), Southern African development Community Cooperation in Legal Metrology
(SADCMEL), Euro-Asia Cooperation of Metrological
National Institutions (COOMET), Euro-Mediterranean
Legal Metrology Forum (EMLMF), that are regional congregations of countries that aim to implement and improve
legal metrology activities, leading to cooperation among
countries that facilitates trade and the dissemination of
metrology knowledge in training sessions.

4. Conclusions
The systematic literature review process allows us to
identify relevant studies in a field of knowledge through
the use of a consolidated search methodology. Legal
metrological control comprises the activities in legal
metrology that are responsible for providing confidence
in measurements that impact both society and the economy; this study has presented the relevant contributions
to this field over the last 10 years.
A systematic search methodology allowed us to identify
59 studies that were published in journals or proceedings
that discuss advances in legal metrology. These selected
studies were categorized in four groups: economy and
society, international trade, legal metrological control and

legal metrology in developing countries. A table was also


assembled to facilitate the identification of the studies in
each category.
Finding a way to measure the economic and social
impact of legal metrology remains a goal for the field.
Economic distortion may be an indicator that can verify
the quantitative impact of legal metrology.
In legal metrological control, the spread of information
systems that manage and treat data and the use of
information technology in legal metrology are growing
trends, allowing rapidity and reliability in inspection and
decision-making processes.
The international harmonization of regulations may be
the great issue to facilitate the growth of the global market,
and initiatives like the Mutual Acceptance Arrangement
are tracing a way to move past technical barriers. Once
international trade is related to government politics and
not metrological issues, however, the developments in
international trade metrology may include partnerships
between OIML and the World Trade Organization.
The development of legal metrology in developing
countries is a broad field to be explored, and many
countries are still lacking a system. Although partnerships
between countries with established legal metrology
systems and developing countries have shown real improvements, regional cooperation should not be discounted.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the support of the National
Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology Inmetro,
which enabled us to carry out this research.
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36

ARTIGO 2 MODELO DE INSUMO-PRODUTO PARA AVALIAO DA


DISTORO ECONMICA NA METROLOGIA LEGAL


O objetivo deste captulo atender aos objetivos especficos dois, trs e quatro deste
trabalho. O artigo foi submetido revista Measurement - Journal of the Measurement
Confederation e est atualmente sob reviso.
O artigo apresenta a formulao matemtica baseada no modelo de insumo-produto
para o clculo da distoro econmica. O modelo esttico de IP relaciona a produo
industrial com a demanda final, por meio da matriz inversa de Leontief. O modelo permite
identificar como a variao de um insumo em um determinado processo, ou uma alterao na
demanda final, impacta toda a economia. O modelo considera que o produto de um processo
o insumo de outro e avalia todas as interconexes entre processos produtivos em uma
economia.
A formulao matemtica proposta para o clculo da distoro econmica introduz um
fator , que representa um desvio devido medio de um determinado produto no modelo
IP, e possibilita determinar como este desvio afeta toda a produo. Desta forma possvel
identificar o impacto de um desvio de medio que se propaga pela economia devido s
interconexes dos processos de produo e demanda final, alm de avaliar financeiramente o
impacto do erro de medio de um produto na economia, uma vez que as matrizes de insumoproduto so representadas em valores monetrios.
Foram realizadas simulaes utilizando produtos-chave na economia brasileira. Para a
realizao das simulaes do clculo de distoro econmica nos setores de commodities,
combustveis, minerao e servios de utilidade pblica (gua, gs e esgoto) foi utilizado
como suporte o software Scilab, verso 5.5.2. A programao da rotina de simulao tambm
apresentada no artigo para o qual foram utilizados os dados da mais recente matriz IP
brasileira, divulgada pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica, em 2005. Os erros de
medio simulados () variaram de 0,01% at 5% de forma a se obter o comportamento da
distoro econmica para cada produto simulado.
Em seguida foi realizado o clculo da distoro econmica com dados empricos de
erros dos instrumentos de medio no setor de combustveis automotivos no Brasil, advindos
de verificaes realizadas nestes instrumentos pelo INMETRO no ano de 2014. Para a
simulao foi utilizado o erro mdio de medio no setor e ao erro foi associado o desviopadro como indicador para incerteza da medio. Ressalta-se que para esse caso emprico a
escala de medio de erro para o setor de combustvel varia de valores negativos a positivos,

37

gerando uma compensao de valores que leva mdia aritmtica () prxima de zero e um
desvio-padro () superior mdia, sendo: = 7.99 ml e = 45,99 ml para gasolina; =
4,22 ml e = 40,83 ml para etanol; = 6,68 ml e = 49,52 ml para diesel. No caso, um erro
positivo significa perda do consumidor na transao comercial e valores negativos perda do
vendedor.
Para permitir comparaes foram simulados os valores de distoro econmica para a
Capacidade de Medio e Calibrao (CMC), que representa a melhor medio possvel a ser
realizada no pas para a grandeza volume. Como este valor realizado em condies
laboratoriais controladas e usa padres de medio com incertezas muito inferiores aos
utilizados em campo, o valor apenas uma referncia terica para comparao. Tambm
apresentado o clculo de simulao com os valores dos erros mximos permitidos (EMP) para
o setor, de forma a identificar, segundo as normas internacionais, os valores em unidade
monetria admitidos como perdas no setor.
Os resultados mostram que dentre os produtos simulados, o maior impacto econmico
registrado no setor de utilidades (gua, energia, gs e esgoto), no qual um desvio de 1%
ocasiona uma distoro econmica de US$ 995.679.155,81 que representa 0,112% do PIB.
Tambm foi observado um comportamento linear da distoro econmica em funo do erro
de medio, sendo R2 = 0,999 para todos os produtos simulados.
Para o setor de combustveis automotivos (gasolina, etanol e diesel), a simulao
mostra uma distoro econmica no setor de US$ (25.505.627,88 + 190.307.948,09). Esse
resultado representa que h uma incerteza no setor de combustveis variando de
US$ -164.802.320,21 a +215.813.575,97. Assim, no possvel concluir, com base no
estimador de incerteza de medio utilizado, se o impacto na economia contra ou a favor do
consumidor. Os valores apresentados pelos erros mximos permitidos no setor variam de
US$ -414.376.810,01 a +414.376.810,01. Portanto, pode-se concluir que o setor de
combustveis no Brasil est adequado, conforme os EMP de acordo com as recomendaes
internacionais, uma vez que o valor de distoro econmica inferior ao calculado para o
EMP. Finalmente, a incerteza de medio associada CMC apresenta uma distoro econmica
de US$ 8.280.768,82, sendo aproximadamente vinte vezes inferior apresentada em campo.
Este resultado inferior esperado, uma vez que as medies para o clculo da CMC so
realizadas em condies laboratoriais controladas, diferentemente da medio de combustvel
no mercado.

38

Os grandes valores de incerteza para a distoro econmica advm dos valores de


incerteza provenientes dos erros de medies dos instrumentos, uma vez que os erros variam
de valores negativos positivos e os valores de desvio padro referem-se distribuio dos
respectivos erros em torno da mdia.
Como concluso, estas simulaes permitem avaliar e comparar os desvios dos
instrumentos utilizados no setor de combustveis em campo, com os valores tericos de
melhor medio e de perdas admissveis para o setor, posicionando as perdas no Brasil com
relao aos valores de referncia internacionais.

39

An Input-Output model to evaluate the economic distortion in trade metrology


Bruno A. Rodrigues Filhoa,b; Rodrigo F. Gonalvesb
a

National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, Legal Metrology Directory, Nossa Senhora das
Graas Av., 50 Xerm - Duque de Caxias RJ, ZIP Code: 25250-020, Brazil
b

Paulista University, Industrial Engineering Department, Dr. Bacelar St., 1212, 4th floor Vila Clementino
So Paulo SP ZIP Code: 04026-002, Brazil
Corresponding Author: Bruno A. Rodrigues Filho (+55)-21-2679-9175, bafilho@inmetro.gov.br
Abstract: The present study proposes a Leontief Input-Output based model to identify the impact of the
deviations in measuring instruments used in trade over the various sectors on the economy. The Brazilian inputoutput matrix is used in order to evaluate how a measurement deviation propagates throughout the different
sectors affecting the whole economy. Simulations are conducted using strategy sector of the economy for
products that have their value based on a measure: utility services (water, gas, electricity and sewer), fuel,
commodities and mining, showing that a distortion of 1% in utility services would represent
US$ 995,679,155.81 meaning 0.112% of the Brazilian GDP. A case test where conducted combining the
proposed model and the measurement errors from the reports of the Brazilian National Metrology Institute for
the fuel sector. The present model has also shown to be a usable tool to determine which areas demand attention
for regulation in metrology, in order to maintain under control their impacts on economy.
Keywords: Legal Metrology, Asymmetry, Leontief, Regulation
1. Introduction
The commerce involving weights and measures is
responsible for a significant part of the countries
GDP. Deviations provided by aggregate value of
measures along a product chain may cause expressive
distortions to the economy. The monetary unit
associated to this market asymmetry implies financial
losses to the economy. Studies conducted by various
nations have demonstrated the relevance of products
with value based on measures in both local and
global markets (Birch, 2003 and Sanders, 2011and
Swann, 2009).
It was realized very early in the human history the
importance of the social and economic consequences
of trade involving weights and measures, as an
example in China 3500 year ago where a system of
mass, length and capacity was in use to control the
market (Juran, 1995) and in Jordan, 3000 year ago
where the prophet Shoaaib demanded to his people
not use double weights standards (Melhem, 2009).
Legal metrology is responsible for apply
regulations to measuring instruments that impact both
economy and society (VIM, 2012), establishing
requirement, as maximum permissible errors, in order
to provide the necessary accuracy for fair exchange,
maintaining the distortion of what is being negotiated
to acceptable levels, arising the confidence on the
market (Birch, 2004).

Charles Babbage, (Babbage, 1832) stated that the


transactions costs also involve the price to verify the
goodness of what the consumer is purchasing. In
trade metrology these costs involve the legal
metrology activities conducted by the state, such as
verifications and surveillance.
Moreover, society and others institutions demand
for rational use of the national resources, so to justify
the budged applied in legal metrology, it is vital to
evaluate quantitatively the welfare derivate from the
legal
metrological
control
(Stiefel,
1973).
Additionally, the impact of metrology and
measurement technologies are not well known, so the
budget allocated to researches in the field are under
constant pressure (Bowns et al., 2003).
The
economic distortion due to measurement deviations
can impact the economy in both international trade,
where deviations of the standards between the
exporter and the importer can cause an asymmetry;
and domestic market, where the deviation cause a
distortion between buyer and seller, causing financial
losses.
The distortions on the economy have been
exhaustively studied for laureate economists such as
Kenneth Arrow (1974), Akerlof (1970), Spence
(1973), Rothschild and Stiglitz (2001). In legal
metrology the study of the economic distortion
provided by inaccuracy in measuring instruments in
the market have been investigated in studies
conducted by Wayne Stiefel (1973), John Birch

40

(2003) and Usuda and Henson (2012), nevertheless a


consolidate model to evaluate the impact of legal
metrology in economy is an open issue (Rodrigues
Filho and Gonalves, 2015). A series of models are
under constant development in order to obtain more
accurate models to evaluate the impact on the
economy.
The Input-Output Model, hereinafter called I-O
model, developed by Wassily Leontief allows to
identify the interconnections among the various
sector of economy due to the relation the output of a
sector as the input to others sector of economy
(Leontief, 1975). One of the mains aspects of the
model is that it is possible to see how the change in
one demand affects the entire economy.
The objective of the present study is to introduce a
formulation based on the I-O model to compute the
economic distortion due to measurement deviations
of the instruments used in the market, considering
how an individual distortion in one economic sector
propagates throughout the various productive sectors
impacting the entire economy.
Thus, the goal of the present study is to use a very
consolidate model in economy, providing a robust
database, contributing to the state of art once it
incorporates the interconnection of the productive
sector on the economy, since a deviation due to a
measurement error in one input will affect an output
in a different sector.
The simulations use the Brazilian I-O matrix and
were conducted in key sector of Brazilian economy
(fuel, mining, utility sector and commodities), in
order to obtain the curves of the economic distortion
based on the measurement deviation.
A case test is also conducted using empirical
information of measurement deviations of fuel
dispensers used in the market obtained from the
information system used by the National Metrology
Institute (NMI) in Brazil, INMETRO. A simulation
using Calibration and Measurement Capabilities
(CMC) and the maximum permissible errors (MPE)
according to regulation are also conducted to fuel
disperser in order to compare the empirical
information to the theoretical capabilities.
A comparison among the impact of the deviations
on the measures and their impact to the Brazilian
GDP is also conducted in order to allowed
comparisons among different countries in future
studies.

2. Literature review
Kenneth Arrow, laureate Nobel Prize in 1972 in
economic science has contributed extensively
studying the trust in economic transactions, and
stated that there is always an element of trust in
commercial transactions, and complement that much
of backwardness in the world regards the lack of
mutual confidence (Arrow, 1974).
In commercial transactions involving measuring
instruments an addition component is always present,
despite trust: an error associated to the accuracy of
the device and consequently a monetary value is
associated to this deviation. These errors are higher
as the instrument is less accurate. This value, in
monetary unit, is described as an economic distortion,
or asymmetry of information.
This asymmetry of the market, also understood as
a lack of knowledge of good quality products in a
given market may lead their exclusion due to societal
inefficiency to asymmetric information flow (Stiglitz,
2002). An economic approach connects the
measurement deviations to an amount in monetary
units, where this money in risk can be treated as lack
of information about the product.
In 2001, a study of this distortion was laureate
with the Nobel Prize in economic science, where the
authors, Akerlof, Spence, Rothschild and Stiglitz
investigated how distortions affect social and
economic institutions (Akerlof, 1970 and Spence,
1973 and Rothschild and Stiglitz, 1976).
However, in metrology the authors agree that the
literature on the economics is very sparse (Bowns et
al., 2003 and Swann, 2009). Additionally, many
studies are conducted by national institutes
considering national strategic aspects and they are not
published.
In the metrology field, Stiefel (1973) presented
the importance of the impact of the money related to
the measurement deviation in a instrument. His work
proposed a statistical analysis to calculate the
monetary value of device inaccuracies using the
quantity of goods traded and the average of
measurement errors of instruments used in the market.
Despite the efforts his work underestimates this
distortion once it considers only errors higher of
instruments used in the market that are higher than a
maximum permissible error. However, the goal of his
article is to use empirical data to compute the
economy distortion.
In# 2000 a study explores the benefits of R&D of
metrology aiming to justifying the budgetary

41

allocation of resources to the National Institute of


Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US. Both
formal and informal impact studies regarding the
impact of metrology involving cholesterol
measurements, traceable reference materials,
automotive industry, and natural gas. About the
economy, the study is focused mainly on the
international trade, presenting the growing
international markets and the initiative of countries
on harmonization of standards (Semerjian and
Watters Jr., 2000). For these impact studies, the
methodology comprehends the investments and costs
of the sectors and decreasing losses due to measuring
improvements.
Consecutively, in 2002 a study conducted in the
United Kingdom measures the impact of
measurements in its infra-technology. It is used a
total factor productivity (TFP) where investments in
R&D, capital, production elasticity, scientific
knowledge were considered (Temple and Williams,
2002). Subsequently, in 2003 a study proposed an
econometric model, known as mapping measurement
impact (MMI), used by the UK Department of Trade
and Industry, to measure the economic benefits from
R&D. The model uses the economic base growth of
an industrial sector, its turnover and an extra growth
provided by a measurement improvement. This extra
growth is given based on experts estimations, given a
qualitative contribution to the model (Bowns et al.,
2003).
Subsequently a report by John Birch (2003), with
an economic analysis of metrology shows a
compilation of impact studies and the literature
review focusing on legal metrology in various
countries. These studies were conducted by national
institutes and consultants and were not published.
Consequently, the point of view published by Birch is
showed in the present literature review:
a) National Bureau of Standards from 1967 to
1977 computed the impact of metrology as
the sum of labor, equipment in all industry,
and subsequently including the added value.
b) Studies conducted by Measurement Canada
in the 1980s identified the value of goods
traded by the instruments creating an
estimate benefit/cost indicator comparing to
the national system costs. Also in Canada a
study conducted by KPMG Consulting to the
Institute for National Measurement Standards,
in 2001, applied a model that measure the
public component of maintaining primary
metrological standards using the costs of
registration for ISO 9000 and 14000 as an

indicator of the companies willingness to pay


for traceability.
c) The Department of Trade & Industry in the
United Kingdom from 1988 to 1999
published a number of studies about
measurements, economic impact and R&D.
The last reviewed study, in 1999, uses a
methodology comparing the number of
measurement related patents to the total,
determining the economic growth provided
by measurements.
d) The
European
Measurement
Project
published a few studies between 2001 and
2002 using a ratio of patents related to
measurements as an indicator to determine
the contribution of metrology to the economy,
combining to the total expenses of the
industry in the metrology field.
Thereafter, in 2004, (Birch, 2004) discusses about
quantifying the benefits of legal metrology, claiming
that the advantages of the states intervention in trade
has not been measured, i.e. the economic distortion
(Birch, 2004).
Moreover, in 2009 a report from the United
Kingdom about the impact of metrology to their
national infrastructure pointed that improvements in
measurements reduces the asymmetry between
buyers and sellers, a common source of market
failure (Swann, 2009).
Afterwards a series of studies reported the
importance of metrology to the economy: as how the
harmonization is an effective tool to decrease the
asymmetry in trade among countries (Ticona and
Frota, 2008) and a way to minimize technical barriers
to trade due to harmonization of metrology among
countries (Dunmill, 2009); the relation of metrology
to the Gross Domestic Product (Carstens, 2010); the
relevance of the state in regulating the market once it
is more cost-effective than deregulating it (Sanders,
2011); the relationship between uncertainty in
measuring instruments and economic losses in trade
(Ardianto, 2012); and surveys to identify the
awareness of enterprises about the economic impact
of metrology and conformity to the economy (Ponce
et al., 2013).
Furthermore, Usuda and Henson (2012) proposed a
model to quantify the losses due to deviation of
standards between buyer and sellers, using previous
known about the quality distribution of the product
and the deviation of measurements standards (Usuda
and Henson, 2012). As the knowledge about
deviations of standards of the traders is necessary as

42

input to the model, it is more recommended to trade


between enterprises and international trade. The
authors also proposed the use of the CMC, however it
is not possible to affirm that the instruments in the
field are according to the CMC once they are subject
to external factors such as weather conditions
(temperature, humidity), and operators inaccuracy.
Otherwise, the CMC is an estimative when no other
information about deviations is available. The authors
also highlighted that there are no reports about the
economic impact of measuring instruments
inaccuracies using empirical information.
Most of the literature that aims to estimate the
impact of the metrology to the economy presents
theoretical studies, surveys and test case using
secondary indicators as number of patents,
expenditures and costs for certification. There are no
consolidated models that can be applied to every
economy in order to identify the losses due to
measurement deviations in the market, allowing
comparisons among countries.
3. Legal control of measuring instruments
The legal metrology is responsible for establishing
requirements to measuring instruments. Different
areas are submitted to regulation, according to their
impact, where the most common are: trade, health,
security and environmental. A few examples of
regulated instruments in different countries are fuel
dispensers,
taximeters,
commercial
scales,
sphygmomanometers, speed cameras and gas
analyzers.
Each country determines the instruments to be
regulated based on its national necessities.
Commonly, the National Metrology Institutes (NMI)
are responsible for metrological legislation. And, as
the markets are more globalized, these regulations are
mostly based on international recommendations to
harmonize not only internal markets but also
international trade.
International
organizations
as
OIML
(International Organization of Legal Metrology) are
the forum for discussion among countries to
determine recommendation to be followed by its
members. Regional organizations as AFRIMETS
(Intra-Africa Metrology System), SADCMEL
(Southern
African
development
Community
Cooperation in Legal Metrology) and SIM (InterAmerican Metrology System) are examples of
regional initiatives to harmonize and change
experiences on the legal metrology field (Rodrigues
Filho and Gonalves, 2015).

Focusing on measuring instruments that impact


the market, once a regulation is issued, a series of
activities known as legal metrological control are
responsible to monitor and prevent misuses and
irregularities.
The international recommendations set maximum
permissible error (MPE) as the maximum acceptable
losses between seller and buyers in order to
harmonize the trade and the legal metrological
control activities are conducted in order to guarantee
the accordance to the MPE.
These activities are divided in three levels: type
approval, verifications and surveillance (Klenovsky,
2006).
Type approval represents the accordance of an
instrument to regulation, regarding to its
constructions specifications, accuracy and precision.
The device can be produced or imported only after a
type approval certificate.
Verifications can be divided among initial,
periodic and after repair. Initial verification is carried
out after the instrument is manufactured, before it is
put in the market, to verify its accordance to the type
approval. Periodical and after repair verifications are
conducted by notified bodies to attest if the
instruments in the market accomplish the maximum
permissible errors established in regulations and to
identify any modification that can interfere on its
metrological characteristics.
Finally, the surveillance represents the activity
responsible to identify the accordance to regulations,
as misuses of instruments and frauds. For its legal
aspects, the authorities conduct this level of legal
metrological control.
Specifically in Brazil, which is the test case in the
present research, the National Institute of Metrology
of Quality and Technology INMETRO, the
Brazilian NMI is the body responsible for regulation
in legal metrology and it is also responsible for
conducting type approvals. Both verification and
surveillance are carried out by 26 notified public
bodies throughout the country (Silva et al., 2006).
4. Research Method
The present research was based on the I-O
Leontief static analysis, showed in section 5.1.
Subsequently, we formulated the mathematical model
to measure the economic distortion, introducing a
deviation due to measurement errors in the classical
I-O model that represents a percentage deviation on
products that have their value based on a measure,

43

showed in section 5.2. Then, in 5.3, some limitations


of the proposed model were also discussed.
Thereafter, our formulation was applied to some
key products, representing important economic
sectors:
commodities, fuel, mining and utility
services. For that, we used the Brazilian I-O matrix,
published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and
Statistics, as displayed in section 6.1, as well as the
computational code, using the software Scilab
version 5.5.2 for simulations.
In 6.2, we present the empirical data from
Brazilian NMI, INMETRO, to evaluate the economic
distortion in the fuel market.
In sections 7.1 we simulate how the economic
distortion behaves according to the measurement
errors for each product. Finally, in 7.2 we used
empirical data to evaluate the economic distortion in
the fuel market. A simulation using the CMC was
also conducted as a theoretical limit to the economic
distortion. The results are displayed in US$ allowing
comparisons among countries. The exchange rate is:
1.000 US$ = R$ 2.3407, representing the value in
2005 since the I-O matrix represents the economy in
that year (Brazilian Central Bank, 2015).
5. Formulation
5.1 Leontief Input-Output Model
The input output model, hereinafter called I-O
model was developed by the Russian economist
Wassily Leontief, professor at Harvard, during the
decade of 1960. Leontief was laureate Nobel Prize in
1973 due to the I-O model. The I-O model was based
on the general equilibrium theory of Lon Walras,
(Guilhoto, 2011).
The I-O model is based on the assumption that the
production processes are connected, and it arises
whenever the output of a process becomes the input
to of the other (Leontief, 1975). This interdependence
is represented in a matrix equation system, where
outputs of processes are represented by the lines and
the inputs by the columns. The goal of the I-O
analysis is to describe economic reality as closely as
possible (Davar, 2000).
The input I-O model has been applied, as a tool to
economic analysis, in diverse areas as world oil
production (Kerschner and Hubacek, 2009), energy
(Arbex and Perobelli, 2010), water consumption
(Velzquez, 2006), and to the analysis of
CO2 emissions embodied in trade (Su et al., 2010).

The more basic form of the I-O model, using the


industry technology assumption, states that the
product output ! is represented by the final demand
of products ! plus the intermediate consumption of
industries !, as seen in (1) (HANDBOOK of inputoutput table compilation and analysis, 1999). The
aggregated products in sectors are represented by !,
as shown in (2).
! =!+!

(1)

!=!

(2)

The basic definitions of the model are given in (3)


and (4).
! = !. !

(3)

! = !. !

(4)

Where ! represents the product by industry use


coefficient matrix and ! the industry by product use
coefficient matrix. Using (1), (2), (3) and (4), the
product output and the industry output are given by
(5) and (6), respectively.
! = !. ! + !

(5)

! = !. !

(6)

Combining (5) and (6), the I-O model is


represented by (7), where ! represents the identity
matrix.
! = ! !. !

!!

. !. !

(7)

Equation 7 represents that the industry output is


dependent on the final demand of products.
The inverse Leontief matrix ! !. ! !!
represents the interdependence between final demand
and the industry output matrices. The matrix !. !
represents the product by product coefficient matrix.
The sum of industry output is represented in (8).
!

!=

!!

(8)

!!!

5.2 The new model to measure the economic


distortion
The I-O analysis provides the production related
to the economy considering the intermediate
consume by the productive sectors and the final
demand. Our model considers that the consumers are
not only represented by the final demand, but also by
the industry, responsible for producing goods to the
final demand as well as inputs to others productive
processes. Then, the trade is also represented when

44

an industry is purchasing inputs to its process, and


during this commercial transaction, distortions are
also involved. This aspect represents the goal of the
Leontief analyses and it is incorporated by our model
when a measurement distortion ! is applied to the
matrices that represent either the intermediate
consume of industries ! and the final demand of
products ! . Both matrices are given in monetary
units and represent the amount of money spent by
productive sectors and final consume.
Here, the deviation ! applied to which product
represents the average error of measuring instruments
used in the sector, aggregating not only systematic
errors, but also external factors that may affect a
measurement, such as weather conditions, operators
accuracy and others.
The deviation applied to!! and ! is represented in
(9).
! = !. ! + !. !

(9)

Consequently, the I-O model with the ! matrix is


represented by (10), where ! represents the industry
output considering the deviation.
The elements of the matrices !. ! and !. !, can be
represented by (10), applying a deviation ! to the
! ! element.
!!!
!!"

! ! .!
! !!

!!!

!! . ! = ! ! . ! =
!!"
!!!
!!!
!!!

!! . !!! !! . !!!

!!!
!!"

!!!
!!!

!! . !!"

!!!

!!
!!

!! . ! = ! = !
!! . !!

!!

!!

. !. !

(11)

(12)

The sum of industry output considering the


distortion ! is representing by (13).
!

! =

!!

!" =

(!! !! )

(14)

!!!

5.3 Limitation of the model


Products are inserted in the I-O matrix according
to their relevance to the economy, so an important
product in one economy may not be relevant to a
different country, and since the formulation is based
on the I-O model the economic distortion can be
simulated only for the products that are represented
as an element in the matrix and may difficult
comparison for different countries in some specific
areas.
Another aspect regards on the fact that the model
computes only the economic impact, in monetary unit,
then, intangible characteristics provided by legal
metrology control such as security, health and
environmental aspects are not considerate in this
formulation.
For the purpose of this study, the measurement
deviation relies on statistical errors of the measuring
instruments, not considering intentional systematic
deviation as produced by metrological frauds.
6. Application

(10)

Consequently, the I-O model with the ! matrix is


represented by (12), where ! represents the industry
output considering the distortion of deviations.
! = ! !. ! !

the difference between the sum of the production


vectors!! and !! , as shown in (14).

(13)

!!!

Finally, the economy distortion due to


measurement error in the proposed model is given by

6.1 Evaluating the impact of products on the economy

The analysis of the economics of trade metrology


is conducted using the latest I-O report data
published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and
Statistics, representing the economy in 2005 (IBGE,
2008). Resources consumed by the production
processes ! , the demand ! , the production by
product ! and the technical coefficient matrix ! were
used as entrance to the model.
Different key products were selected in order to
understand how a deviation in a measurement in a
product would affect the whole economy. The
products were selected due to its impact in the
Brazilian economy, as showed in table 1.
The deviations were set from 0.01% to 5% in
order to obtain the economic distortion curve for each
product.

45

Table 1: Products simulated to compute the


economic distortion.

6.2 Obtaining the economic


measurement error data reports

Commodities
Wheat
Coffee
Soy
Corn

The measurement errors of the fuel dispensers


used in the market were obtained from the Brazilian
NMI in order to study the economic distortion in the
fuel market. Despite the field activities as
verifications and surveillance are carried out by
delegated bodies, in Brazil, a unified database
provide by an integrated information system,
allowing to study the behavior of the measuring
instruments under the legal metrology activities. The
statistical distribution of errors for gasoline
dispensers is showed in figure 2. Similar distributions
are obtained to ethanol and diesel dispensers.

Fuel
Gasoline
Ethanol
Diesel
-

Mining
Coal
Iron
-

Utility
Water,
electricity,
gas
and
sewer

In order to identify the impact curve for each


product individually, the matrices !. ! and !. ! are
obtained for the!! ! product according to (10) and
(11). For the Brazilian I-O matrix, ! = 110 and
! = 55. The software Scilab version 5.5.2 was used
to simulate the economic distortion of the products
displayed in table 1. The code used is showed in
figure 1.
1 // BEGINNING THE SIMULATION
2 //Computing the production g
3 stacksize('max')
4 //Matrix D
5 Sheets=readxls('D.xls')
6 typeof(Sheets)
7 D=Sheets(1)
8 typeof(D)
9 D.value()
10 //Vector q
11 Sheets=readxls('q.xls')
12 typeof(Sheets)
13 q=Sheets(1)
14 typeof(q)
15 q.value()
16 //Matrix Un
17 Sheets=readxls('Un.xls')
18 typeof(Sheets)
19 Un=Sheets(1)
20 typeof(Un)
21 Un.value()
22 //Computing Bn
23 g=D.value() * q.value()
24 gdiag=diag(g)
25 ginv=inv(gdiag)
26 Bn=Un.value() * ginv
27 //Computing D.Bn
28 DBn=D.value()*Bn
29 //Computing Leontief
30 L=eye(55,55)-DBn
31 Leontief=inv(L)
32 //Matrix Fn
33 Sheets=readxls('Fn.xls')
34 typeof(Sheets)
35 Fn=Sheets(1)
36 typeof(Fn)
37 Fn.value()
38 //Computing D.Fn
39 DFn=D.value()*Fn.value()
40 //Computing total production g
41 Producao = Leontief * D.value()*Fn.value()
42 //Computing the production with distortion g'to
element of Un
43 UnDist = Un.value()
44 k=90
45 delta=1.0001
46 for i=1:55 UnDist(k,i)=UnDist(k,i)*delta
47 end
48 //COMPUTING D.BnDist
49 BnDist=UnDist*ginv
50 DBnDist=D.value()*BnDist
51 //COMPUTING LEONTIEF DISTORTION
52 LDist=eye(55,55)-DBnDist
53 LeontiefDist=inv(LDist)
54 // COMPUTING FnDist
55 FnDist = Fn.value()
56 FnDist(k)=FnDist(k)*delta
57 //Computing D.FnDist
58 DFnDist=D.value()*FnDist
59 //Computing total production g
60 ProducaoDist = LeontiefDist * D.value()*FnDist
61 //Computing the economic distortion as ED = g'- g
62 //Converting to monetary unit $ Million
63 ED = (sum(ProducaoDist) - sum(Producao))*1000000
64 //END OF SIMULATION

distortion

using

Figure 2. Measurement errors distribution for


gasoline dispensers.

the

k-th

Figure 1.Scilab code used to simulate the


economic distortion.

The measurement errors represent the results of


subsequent verifications executed in the 20 out of 26
delegated bodies from June to December 2014, for
accuracy test at maximum flow, covering 78,804
dispersers of gasoline, 37,719 of ethanol and 50,787
of diesel. The test were conducted according to the
Brazilian regulation (Portaria Inmetro no023, 1985),
based on the international recommendation (OIML
R118, 1995). Table 2 shows averages and standard
deviations for the measurement errors of dispensers
used in the market, as well as the CMC for volume
measurement in Brazil.
Table 2: Average errors and standard deviation of
fuels dispenser.
!

Fuel dispenser

CMC*
(%)

Gasoline
Ethanol

7.99
4.22

45.99
40.83

0.01
0.01

Diesel

6.68

49.52

0.01

CMC for volume of liquid from 2L to 20L using gravimetric


determination (BIPM, 2007).

46

7.1 Simulating the economic distortion

A specific curve was obtained for each simulation


in order to identify how a given deviation affects the
economy for the key products simulated, according to
table 1. Table 3 shows the economic distortion for a
deviation of 1% for each simulated product.

For the simulated commodities, figure 4, soy has


the more representative impact on Brazilian economy
when compared to corn, coffee and wheat. A
distortion of 1% for soy would represent
US$ 181,463,310.12.
Million$

7. Results and discussion

1,000.00#
900.00#
800.00#

Wheat#
Soy#
Corn#
Coe#

700.00#

Product

Economic
distortion
produced by a deviation of
1% (US$)

GDP*
impact (%)

Wheat

13,510,390.91

0.002

Coffee

57,066,236.60

0.006

Soy

181,463,310.12

0.020

Corn

78,240,769.86

0.009

Gasoline

176,456,179.78

0.020

Ethanol

268,911,116.33

0.030

Diesel

383,029,747.51

0.043

Coal

95,617,934.81

0.011

Iron

196,439,530.91

0.022

Water,
electricity,
and sewer

995,679,155.81

0.112

0.00#
0.00%#

1.00%#

2.00%#

3.00%#

4.00%#

5.00%#

6.00%#

Measuring$Error$

Figure 4:
commodities.

Economic

distortion

curve

for

Million$

Among fuels, figure 5, a distortion of 1% for


diesel would represent US$ 383,029,747.51, making
it economically more relevant than both gasoline and
ethanol.

gas

2,500.00#

2,000.00#

Utility services, represented in figure 3, have the


biggest impact when compared to others simulated
products once they are used recurrently as inputs to
other products, where a deviation of 1% would
represent an asymmetry of US$ 995,679,155.81.
Million$

300.00#

100.00#

Water, electricity, gas and sewer are displayed as


a single product once the utility services are
represented as a single element in the Brazilian InputOutput Matrix.

6,000.00#

U-lity#2#Water,#Gas,#Eletricity,#Sewer#

Gasoline#
Ethanol#
Diesel#

1,500.00#

1,000.00#

500.00#

0.00#
0.00%#

1.00%#

2.00%#

3.00%#

4.00%#

5.00%#

6.00%#

Measuring$Error$

Figure 5: Economic
automotive fuels.

distortion

curve

for

Between the simulated mining products,


according to figure 6, iron is approximately twice
more representative than coal on the Brazilian
economy, where a distortion of 1% would represent
US$ 196,439,530.91.

5,000.00#

4,000.00#

US$$

400.00#

200.00#

Brazilian GDP in 2005 (The World Bank).

3,000.00#

2,000.00#

1,000.00#

0.00#
0.00%#

500.00#

US$$

600.00#

US$$

Table 3: Economic distortion for a deviation of 1%


impact on the GDP.

1.00%#

2.00%#

3.00%#

4.00%#

5.00%#

6.00%#

Measuring$Error$

Figure 3: Economic distortion curve for utility


services.

Identifying the more economically relevant


product is an important aspect of the proposed model,
allowing the national governments allocating
resources strategically to the products that have more
influence on the local economy, enhancing the legal
metrology control and consequently the national
competitiveness as well as fair competition in the

47

national level, reducing


measurement errors.

the

losses

due

to

Million$

Another additional benefit of the model is to


provide information to guide the legal metrology
activities in order to be more efficient, controlling the
most important products to the national economy.
1,200.00#

Coal#
1,000.00#

US$
986,035,032.26
for
iron
US$ 5,038,244,969.45for utility services.
7.2 Measuring the economic distortion

The case test aims to compute the economic


distortion of fuel dispensers used in trade in Brazil,
according to the measurement errors showed in the
table 2. For the simulation according to the I-O
model, the following assumption was made:

Iron#

US$$

800.00#

600.00#

Both intermediate sectors and final demand


displayed in the I-O model consume the input
(fuel) using the dispensers according to the
errors distribution showed in figure 2.

The economic distortion of the fuel dispersers,


including gasoline, ethanol and diesel combined
represent US$ (25,505,627.88 + 190,307,948.09).

400.00#

200.00#

0.00#
0.00%#

and

1.00%#

2.00%#

3.00%#

4.00%#

5.00%#

6.00%#

Measuring$Error$

Figure 6: Economic distortion curve for mining.


Figures 3-6 show the economic distortion results
as well as interpolated curves to each simulated
products. A linear dependence between measurement
error and the economic distortion is also observed
since
R! = 0.999 to each curve. The linear
approaches are represented in table 4, for each
simulated product.
Table 4: Linear approaches for the curves in
figures 3-6.
Product(

Linear(approaching(

Wheat&
Soy&
Corn&
Coffee&
Gasoline&
Ethanol&
Diesel&
Coal&
Iron&
Utility& D& Water,& gas,&
electricity&and&sewer&

y&=&1,351,081,734.06x&
y&=&18,154,801,642.7127x&
y&=&7,831,235,902.21x&
y&=&5,706,934,996.86x&
y&=&17,739,577,420.26x&
y&=&26,894,253,036.35x&
y&=&38,333,547,735.50x&
y&=&9,563,668,978.83x&
y&=&19,716,911,667.11x&
y&=&100,705,819,055.31x&

Despite the measurement error value of 1% has


been used for comparison, it should be noted that the
errors of instruments in the market might be higher or
lower, according to the control provided by legal
metrology.
As an example of the impact of higher deviations,
simulated values for a deviation of 5% would
represent an asymmetry of US$ 907,762,079.72 for
soy,
US$
1,916,756,782.16
for
diesel,

The maximum permissible error (MPE) based on


the international recommendation OIML R 118 is
established as + 0.5%. The simulation shows that the
MPE represents + US$ 414,376,810.01in monetary
unit meaning a range of US$ 828,753,620.03 of
permissible losses in trade. The positive values (+
symbol), represents a buyer loss and negative values
(-symbol) seller loss. Since the present study
considers the money attached to measurement errors
both positive and negative values are considerate as
monetary losses.
The Calibration and Measurement Capabilities
(CMC), representing the lower measuring uncertainty
achieved is given as 0.01% for Brazil, and the
economic distortion according the CMC represents
US$ 8,280,768.82. This value can be interpreted as
the lower uncertainty to the economic distortion that
can be achieved by the country once it is related to
the best metrological technic available locally.
However, the CMC is achieved in laboratorial
conditions using more precise and accurate devices
than the instruments used in trade, so for the
economic distortion computation it must be
understand as a theoretical value.
Figure 7 shows the economic distortion and its
uncertainty for the empirical data of fuel dispensers
used in trade in Brazil. The CMC as a theoretical
uncertainty and the MPE range are also displayed for
comparison.

Million$

48

450.00&
350.00&

considerable covering a range of values from


US$
13,510,390.91
for
wheat
to
US$ 995,679,155.81for utility services, for a 1%
deviation, using the I-O Matrix available for the
Brazilian economy for 2005.

US$&414,376,810.01&
Empirical&data&

250.00&

US$$

150.00&
50.00&

CMC&
MPE&

!50.00&
!150.00&
!250.00&
!350.00&
!450.00&

Figure 7: Economic distortion for empirical data,


CMC and MPE range.
According to figure 7 it is possible to identify that
the legal metrology activities maintain the
measurement errors and uncertainty below the MPE
for fuel dispensers. It is also possible to observe the
great gap between the uncertainties of the dispensers
used in the market when compared to the CMC
uncertainty.
The proposed model allows measuring this gap
between the theoretic and in field uncertainties
permitting to quantify the benefits of the resources
allocated to improve the measures in the market to
decreasing the uncertainties in the fuel market.
8. Conclusion
The proposed model using a distortion applied to
the Input-Output Leontief Model allowed to
determine the economic distortion due to a
measurement error in products that have values based
on legal metrology.
One contribution of the proposed model is to
compute all interconnection among the sector on the
economy, permitting to evaluate the economic
distortion on the whole economy.
The model shows to be appropriate to be applied
to national economies once intermediate processes
besides the final demand are considerate for measure
the economic distortion due to measurement errors.
Another contribution is the use to identify the
products that demands more accurate metrological
control, resulting in better formulation for metrology
policies and budget.
Different products comprising commodities, fuel,
mining and utility services were simulated in order to
obtain their economic distortion curves. The values
of economic distortion due to deviations are

These simulated economic distortions show the


importance of an adequate national system to control
and monitor the measurement deviations since the
impact on the economy for a single product can be
higher than one billion dollars, as simulated to utility
services.
A linear dependence was also observed between
the economic distortion and the measurement error,
where the I-O simulations allows to obtain the
angular inclination of the curve, permitting to
determine which distortion on measures of products
have more impact on the economy.
The legal metrology control also proved to be an
important tool that brings confidence to the market as
exposed to the fuels case test where the measurement
errors are considerably lower than the maximum
permissible errors according to the international
recommendation.
The main disadvantage of the model remains on
the fact that not all products are represented in the IO matrices, as the utility sector product simulated,
where electricity, water, gas and sewer are computed
as a single product for the Brazilian case.
The proposed model can also be applied to any
industry in future studies, once the I-O analysis is
applicable, in order to identify losses and control the
productive process more effectively.
For futures studies, the systematic errors
introduced by metrological frauds can be applied in
the I-O formulation in order to quantify the
metrological frauds to the economy.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the
National Institute of Metrology, Quality and
Technology INMETRO, which enabled us to carry
out this research.
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Rothschild,#M.,#Stiglitz,#J.E.,#1976.##
Equilibrium$ in$ competitive$ insurance$
markets.#Quaterly#J.#Econ.#91,#629649.#
Sanders,#R.,#2011.##
Why$ do$ we$ regulate$ measuring$
instruments$ used$ for$ trade.# OIML# Bull.#
LII,#13##15.#
Semerjian,#H.G.,#Watters#Jr.,#R.L.,#2000.##
Impact$ of$ measurement$ and$ standards$
infrastucture$ on$ the$ national$ economy$
and$ international$ trade.# Measurement#
27,#
179196.#
doi:10.1016/S0263f
2241(99)00065f2#
Silva,#P.P.A.,#Rche,#M.M.E.,#Silva,#M.E.,#2006.##
The$ legal$ metrology$ Brazilian$ model.#
Presented# at# the# XVIII# IMEKO# World#
Congress# f# Metrology# for# a# Sustainable#
Development,#Rio#de#Janeiro,#Brazil,#p.#18.#
Spence,#A.M.,#1973.##
Job$ market$ signaling.# Quaterly# J.# Econ.#
87,#355374.#
Stiefel,#S.W.,#1973.##
Management$assistance$for$weights$and$
measures$
progress,$
measuring$
inaccuracys$
economic$
distortion.#
Presented#at#the#58th#National#Conference#
on#Weights#an#Measures.#
Stiglitz,#J.E.,#2002.##
Globalization$ and$ Its$ Discontents.#
W.W.Norf#ton#&#Company,#New#York,#USA.#
Su,#B.,#Huang,#H.C.,#Ang,#B.W.,#Zhou,#P.,#2010.##
Inputoutput$analysis$of$CO2$emissions$
embodied$in$trade:$The$effects$of$sector$
aggregation.# Energy# Econ.# 32,# 166175.#
doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2009.07.010#
Swann,#P.,#2009.#
The$ economics$ of$ metrology$ and$
measurement.# National# Measurement#
Office,#United#Kingdom.#
#
#
#

Temple,#P.,#Williams,#G.,#2002.##
InfraEtechnology$
and$
economic$
performance:$evidence$from$the$United$
Kingdom$ measurement$ infrastructure.#
Inf.# Econ.# Policy# 14,# 435452.#
doi:10.1016/S0167f6245(02)00065f3#
The#
World#
Bank,#
available#
in#
<data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.M
KTP.CD>.#Accessed#in#08/21/2015.#
Ticona,#J.M.,#Frota,#M.N.,#2008.##
Assessment$ of$ the$ economic$ impact$ of$
product$certification:$A$significant$area$
of$ application$ of$ measurement.#
Measurement#
41,#
88104.#
doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2006.10.017#
Usuda,#T.,#Henson,#A.,#2012.##
Economic$ Impact$ of$ Equivalence$ of$
Measure$ Standards.# NCSL# Int.# Meas.# 7,#
6270.#
Velzquez,#E.,#2006.##
An$ inputoutput$ model$ of$ water$
consumption:$ Analysing$ intersectoral$
water$ relationships$ in$ Andalusia.# Ecol.#
Econ.#
56,#
226240.#
doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.09.026#
International# vocabulay# of# metrology# f# Basic# and#
General#Concepts#Associated#Terms#f#VIM.#
2012#3rd#edition.#
#

51

ARTIGO 3 MEDIO DO IMPACTO ECONMICO DE FRAUDES


METROLGICAS UTILIZANDO O MODELO DE INSUMO-PRODUTO


Para atender ao quinto objetivo especfico do estudo, este captulo apresenta uma
pesquisa que avalia o impacto advindo dos erros de medio de carter sistemtico
introduzidos propositalmente nos instrumentos utilizados na indstria e comrcio, ou seja,
uma fraude. Uma vez que o objetivo de uma fraude metrolgica adquirir vantagens
financeiras de um vendedor sobre um comprador, este tipo de desvio pode provocar impactos
significativos na economia quando considera a agregao destes erros nos setores produtivos
e demanda final. O artigo foi submetido ao Advances in Production Management Systems
Conference APMS 2016: Production Management Initiatives for a Sustainable World e
aprovado, e est aguardando a publicao no peridico IFIP Advances in Information and
Communication Technology.
No estudo utilizada a formulao para avaliao da distoro econmica baseada no
modelo de insumo-produto, que considera o carter positivo do erro de medio como perda
do consumidor em uma transao comercial e o sinal negativo perda do vendedor. Desta
forma, como os resultados de medio de uma fraude so tendenciosos, os resultados foram
divididos em duas distribuies estatsticas distintas: uma para os erros de medio aleatrios,
com valor mdio prximo de zero, e outra para os erros advindos de fraude, que deve ser
deslocada positivamente e representa perdas ao consumidor. O desvio padro dessas
distribuies o parmetro utilizado para estimar a incerteza de medio da distoro
econmica.
Assim, duas variveis so necessrias para determinar o impacto econmico da fraude:
o percentual de erro do instrumento fraudado, que varia neste estudo de 2,5% at 25%, com
base em valores de fraudes encontradas em campo (LEITO; VASCONCELLOS;
BRANDO, 2014),

e o percentual de instrumentos no mercado que apresenta fraude,

variando de 0,01% at 1%. Assim, foram utilizados os resultados empricos de erros de


medio no setor de combustveis no Brasil no ano de 2014 para determinar a distoro
econmica. Um algoritmo utilizando o software Scilab verso 5.5.2 foi implementado com
base nessas duas variveis para se obter o comportamento da distoro econmica.
Os resultados mostram, no caso do comrcio de etanol automotivo, que para uma
fraude de medio com erros de 10% dos quais 1% apresentam fraude, h um impacto de
US$ 303.734.309,35 de perdas ao consumidor ,em contrapartida de US$ 49.236.453,24 contra
o vendedor. Isso significa que um desvio intencional nas medies geram grande incerteza e

52

tendem a perdas ao consumidor. Tambm foi observado um comportamento linear entre a


distoro econmica e o erro de medio da fraude para um percentual fixo de instrumentos
fraudados no mercado.

53

Measuring the economic impact of metrological frauds in


trade metrology using an Input-Output Model

Bruno A. Rodrigues Filho 1, 2, Rodrigo F. Gonalves 2


1

National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology INMETRO, Duque de Caxias,


Brazil
2
Paulista University UNIP, So Paulo, Brazil
bafilho@inmetro.gov.br

Abstract. The present study aims to evaluate the economic distortion in trade
metrology due to metrological frauds in measuring instruments used in the
commerce and industry. The economic distortion represents the economic losses due to measurement deviations in trade. An Input-Output Model approach is
carried out in order to determine the economic distortion whenever an output in
a process represents the input to another one and it considers the aggregation of
values of products traded in the economy. A case test is also conducted using
empirical data of measurement errors and metrological frauds in the fuel sector
in Brazil in order to determine their economic impact. The results show that the
impact of metrological frauds increase the distortion uncertainty from US$
54,910,307.13 to US$ 303,734,309.35! toward consumers losses creating a
great asymmetry in the market.
Keywords. Legal metrology, economic distortion, market asymmetry, Leontief.

Introduction

The commerce has always been present in the human history and it is not possible to
imagine our society separately from it. Specifically, the commerce involving goods
which values are based on weights and measures has always been present in peoples
everyday life. Initially, weights and measures were initially introduced to control food
in trade [1] and the origins of the weighing instruments which are a symbol of parity,
truth and justice date back to the oldest cultures 10,000 years ago [2].
The necessity for protection regards on the economic distortion or market asymmetry that is describe as the monetary value associated to a measurement deviation
due to the inaccuracies intrinsic to the measuring processes as a consequence of errors, uncertainties, operators inaccuracy, environmental conditions and others.
This economic distortion impacts both economy and society since deviations between buyers and sellers cause economic losses and unfair competition. Moreover
consumers protections aspects are also related to this market asymmetry that may be
an indicator of the economic impact of legal metrology [3]. Several researchers have

54

also presented the importance of legal metrology and its social and economical impact
to the society, trade, industry and governments [4-8]. The initiative regarding using
empirical data do evaluate the economic impact of inaccuracy of measuring instruments was initially proposed during the decade of 1970 [4] and several formulations
using proxy variables have also been proposed, such as [5]: number of measurement
related patents in comparison to the total; cost of certification as an indicator of industries willingness to pay for reliability; the sum of all industry equipment.
Despite the deviations of the measuring instruments regards to the measurement error theory, an intentional error or a metrological fraud caused by the operator in order
to prejudice a buyer in a commercial transaction creates a great distortion in the economy. An example is the energy market in Germany, where the global competition has
led to tighter profit margins increasing the risk for metrological frauds [6]. Recently,
the global market has also been overflowed by metrological frauds in the fuel market
occasioning severe losses to the buyers and competitors [7].
Regardless of the obvious aspect that a metrological fraud is prejudicial to the consumers and consequently the economy, its economic impact is not well known. The
Input-Output Model allows to compute how a change in a product demand impacts its
production contemplating the interconnections of productive processes since it considers that an output of a process can be an input to another one [8].
Consequently, the Input-Output Model, hereinafter called I-O for simplicity, permits to evaluate the economic impact a measurement deviation in a product to the
economy, introducing a factor representing these deviations to the traditional Leontiefs formulation, identifying how the deviations spreads across every sector on the
economy.
Then, based on the I-O theory, the present study aims to evaluate the economical
uncertainties cause by metrological frauds in trade. The measurement errors report for
fuel disperses in the field in Brazil is used to provide an empirical case. In order to
understand the impact of metrological frauds, we replaced a percentage of the empirical deviations by values based on known metrological frauds to evaluate the behavior
of these frauds to the economy.

Methodology

2.1

Formulation to compute the economic distortion

The I-O formulation is based on the assumption that the productive processes are
connected since an input of a process is the output of another process [8]. This interconnection is represented in a matrix system where the lines represent the outputs and
columns the inputs. The basic conception is given by the product output !, which is
represented by the final demand of products ! plus the intermediate consumption of
industries !, as seen in (1).
! =!+!

(1)

55

Due to linear algebra, the basic formulation of the I-O is given by (2), where g represents aggregation of q in industry sectors, I the identity, and D and B are coefficient
matrices.
! = ! !. !

!!

. !. !

(2)

Consequently, the total national production of the n aggregate products g is given


by the sum of the vector g, as shown in (2), where g is given in monetary units.
!=

!
!!! !!

(3)

To compute the impact of measurement deviation, a multiplier factor ! representing a percentage of deviation due to measurement errors is introduced in both intermediate consumption of industries and the final demand, as seen in (4).
! = !. ! + !. !

(4)

Finally, the influence of the distortion due to measurement deviations, i.e. the economic distortion ED, is given by the difference of total production including!!, ! less
the total production of the n aggregate products !, as shown in (3).
!" =
2.2

!
!!!(!!

!! )

(5)

Evaluating the impact of metrological frauds

A metrological fraud can be understood as an intentional deviation introduced in a


measuring instrument to promote financial gains to the seller over the buyer. The
definition of measurement error is given in (6), where the error e is equal to the instrument value !! less the value of the standard used for comparison !! .
! = !! !!

(6)

Consequently, positive values of e represent buyer losses and negative values sellers losses. For example, in the fuel market, for a petro pump displaying 20.10l and
the standard displaying 20.00 l, and for 1l = $1.00, it would represent a loss of $0.10
for the buyer.
Since the measurement deviations of instruments can be represented by an average
and measurement uncertainty regarding a statistical distribution, the economy distortion must also contain an uncertainty. For the present study it is reasonable to assume
that measurement errors of the instruments used in the market and industry follow a
gauss distribution. We also assumed the standard deviation to represent the measurement uncertainty in the present study.
However, the set of illegal devices would follow a different statistical distribution
once they are intentionally regulated to provide higher positive measurement errors.
Thus, the contributions of fraudulent devices contribute only to positive values of
deviations. So in order to analyze the contributions of errors to the economic distortion uncertainty, we considered the mutual distribution uncertainty to positive values

56

(buyers losses) and the regular devices distribution to negative values (sellers losses), as seen in figure 1.

Fig. 1. Uncertainty evaluation for the economic distortion.

A mutual distribution uncertainty !!" is obtained combining deviations of both


fraudulent and regular measurement instruments distributions. The measurement uncertainty is represented in (7), where !!" represents the average of the mutual distribution, !! the average and !! the standard deviation of the instruments distribution.
!! !! !"#$%&"!"'(!!"#$%&'("&)! !!" + !!"
2.3

(7)

Simulating a metrological fraud

In order to evaluate the economic impact of metrological fraud we used an empirical


database of measurement errors for automotive ethanol dispensers in Brazil [9]. And,
the metrological frauds for the fuel market usually varies from 6% to 12% [7].
To analyze how the economic distortion behaves when fraudulent instruments are
used in the commerce, we have established two variables: the percentage of fraudulent devices and the measurement error due to the fraud. Then, a Scilab 5.5.2 algorithm replaces randomly a percentage of instruments in the database by fraudulent
values, as follow:
Sheets=readxls('Ethanol_Error.xls') // Reading empirical data
typeof(Sheets) Error=Sheets(1)
typeof(Error) Error.value()
percentage=0.05//% Defining percentage to be replaced
total=fix(37719*percentage/100)+1
fraudError=Error.value()
VolumeFraud=2000 //ml
for i=1:total //Replacing values
fraudError((fix(37719*rand())+1))=VolumeFraud
end
write_csv(fraudError,"Fraud_Error.xls") //new dataset//End

57

Figure 2 also illustrates the process of simulating fraudulent instruments in the


market.

Empirical Dataset

3
4

k-2
k-1

n-2

Percentage
randomly
replaced

Dataset containing both empirical


and simulated defrauded errors

k-2
k-1

Empirical error

Defrauded
simulated
error

n-1

n-1

Economic distortion of fraud

Measurement errors
of n devices used in the field

Fig. 2. Process for replacing empirical measurement errors for simulated defrauded values.

The empirical data of measurement errors of automotive ethanol dispersers where


the average (aD) and the standard deviation (D) comprising 37,719 ethanol dispensers
verified in 2014 are represented in ml units by: aD = 4.22; D = 40.83. The great divergence of these dispensers is mainly caused by the imprecisions of the measurement
of fuel, such as environmental conditions, humidity, users proficiency and others
[10].
Finally, to compute the economic distortion according to 5, we used the latest published Brazilian Input-Output matrices representing the economy in 2005 [11] as well
as the dollar exchange rate [12]: US$ 1.0000 = R$ 2.3407.

Results

For a bigger percentage of fraudulent devices used in trade, the economic distortion
associated to the measurement errors is consequently bigger. Table 1 shows the results of economic distortion from a range of 0.01% to 1% of fraudulent measuring
instruments introduced in the commerce comparing to a scenario where no frauds are
used. A fraud value of 10% is applied to the results presented in table 1, representing
a deviation of 2 l for each 20 l traded.
The measurement uncertainty regarding sellers losses remains constant once a
fraud affects only the buyers. The average representing the economic distortion is
linear dependent of the percentage of fraudulent devices (R2 = 0.9998).

58

Table 1. The variation of the measurement uncertainty according to the percentage of fraudulent devices for a 10% volume deviation.
%"of"fraudulent"
instruments"in"
the"market"
0!
0.01!
0.05!
0.1!
0.5!
1!

Economic""
Distortion"
Average"(US$)"

Buyer&loss&

Measurement"Uncertainty"

$!5,673,853.89!
$5,969,647.42!
$7,018,370.10!
$7,018,370.10!
$19,119,034.64!
$32,295,351.86!

$!54,910,307.13!
$!67,441,271.42!
$!88,496,693.13!
$!109,686,654.24!
$!216,363,722.30!
$!303,734,309.35!

Seller&loss&

$!49,236,453.24!
!

Range"(Buyer"+"Seller)"
$!104,146,760.38!
$!116,677,724.66!
$!137,733,146.37!
$!158,923,107.49!
$!265,600,175.55!
$!352,970,762.60!

$#400.00#

Percentage#of#fraudulent#measuring#instruments:#
0#0%##

$#350.00#

0.01%##
0.01#

Economic'Distor,on'(US$)'

$#300.00#

0.05#
0.05%##

$#250.00#

0.1%##
0.1#

$#200.00#

0.5%##
0.5#

Consumer#loss#

Millions'

Figure 3 shows the economic distortion variation due to metrological frauds, displaying the measurement uncertainty. It is also possible to observe the great divergence between consumer and sellers losses.

1#1%##

$#150.00#
$#100.00#
$#50.00#

Seller#loss#

$#0.00#
!$#50.00#
!$#100.00#

Economic'Distor,on'(US$)'

Millions'

Fig. 3. Effect of metrological frauds on the economy according to the percentage of fraudulent
instruments.
$6.50"
y"="142.5877x"+"5,686,816.3878"
R"="0.9998"

$6.40"
$6.30"
$6.20"
$6.10"
$6.00"
$5.90"
$5.80"
$5.70"
0"

1000"

2000"

3000"

4000"

5000"

6000"

fraud'(ml'per'each'20'l''traded)'

Fig. 4. Economic distortion for a constant number of fraudulent devices and volume variation.

59

The economic distortion for bigger percentage values of fraudulent instruments in


the market introduces bigger consumers losses differently when comparing to the
sellers losses, which remains constant. As a direct consequence, the probability of
consumers losses is bigger than sellers and it indicates a component of unfair competition caused by the asymmetry of information. The range of US$ 352,970,762.60!
uncertainty caused by 1% of irregular instruments in the commerce is more than three
times bigger than the range of uncertainty if no fraudulent instruments were used and
the uncertainty toward consumers losses is six times bigger than the initial uncertainty, where no fraud is applied to the market.
In order to identify the behavior of the economic distortion due to the volume fraud
dispensed to the consumers, we simulated the economic distortion for a constant
number of fraudulent instruments and ranged the value of fraud, from 500 m l to 5000
m l for each 20 l traded. Figure 4 shows the behavior of the economic distortion for
different values of fraud when keeping the percentage of 0.01% fraudulent instruments in the market constant.
The economic distortion introduced in the economy increases the consumers losses in the trade due to bigger errors of volume dispensed. The dependence between the
economic distortion and the fraudulent measurement values is linear, for R2=0.9998.

Conclusion

The Input-Output Model allowed us to compute the economic distortion due to the
measurement errors of instruments used in trade contemplating the interconnections
of the sector on the economy. Since a fraud is intentionally introduced in the market it
changes the random behavior of deviations and add a systematic deviation component, which reflects in the economic impact to the economy.
The methodology proposed to compute the impact of fraudulent devices in the
market also permitted to identify their impact on the economy based on two variables:
the percentage error of measurement traded and percentage of fraudulent instruments.
Empirical information of the fuel market in Brazil also enable to evaluate the impact of metrological frauds showed to be expressive and it increases the range of uncertainty of the economic distortion from US$ 104,146,760.38!to US$ 352,970,762.60!
toward consumers losses, for 1% of fraudulent devices for a 10% deviation. The
uncertainty representing buyers losses increases from US$ 54,910,307.13 to $
303,734,309.35 creating a big asymmetry between buyers and sellers in the market.
Moreover, we identified that the economic loss is linearly dependent of the volume
deviation introduced in the instrument, for a constant number of fraudulent devices.
The big impact of metrological frauds in the commerce may affect the relation between buyer and seller due to the great asymmetry of information caused by the intentional deviation in the measurements, creating unfair competition that may also impact honest sellers leading the economy to a failure.
Additionally, the proposed model can also be applied to any industrys quality
management system in order to evaluate the losses due to the measurement processes
since the I-O analysis is a consolidate model in economy.

60

Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the support of INMETRO, which enabled us to carry out
this research.

References
1.

Birch, J.: The expanding scope of legal metrology and the changing role of the state in a
globalised world. OIML Bull. XLV, 2324 (2004).
2. EULER, W., Hennef, Sieg, M.: History of Scales Part 15: Automatic gravimetric filling
instruments (AGFIs) - Weighing and bag filling machines for loose bulk products. OIML
Bull. 4, 89 (2015).
3. Rodrigues Filho, B.A., Gonalves, R.F.: Legal metrology, the economy and society: A
systematic literature review. Measurement. 69, 155163 (2015).
4. Stiefel, S.W.: Management assistance for weights and measures progress, measuring
inaccuracys economic distortion. Presented at the 58th National Conference on Weights
an Measures (1973).
5. Birch, J.: Benefit of legal metrology for the economy and society - A study for the International Committee of Legal Metrology. International Organization of Legal Metrology OIML, Paris, France (2003).
6. Kochsiek, M., Schulz, W.: Modernization of legal metrology in Germany. OIML Bull.
XLV, 27 31 (2004).
7. Leito, F.O., Vasconcellos, M.T., Brando, P.C.R.: Contramedidas de hardware y software sobre el fraude de alta tecnologa al Surtidor de combustible bajo el alcance de
Metrologa Legal. In: 9th International Symposium Metrologia 2014 Proceedings. p. 8. ,
Havana, Cuba (2014).
8. Leontief, W.: Structure of the world economy: Outline of a simple input-output formulation. Proc. IEEE. 63, 345351 (1975).
9. Rodrigues Filho, B.A., Soratto, A.N., Gonalves, R.F.: Information systems as a tool to
improve legal metrology activities. In: 8th Brazilian Congress on Metrology Proceedings.
, Bento Gonalves, RS, Brazil (2015).
10. Batista, E., Almeida, A., Almeida, N., Reis, C., Filipe, E.: Comparison on the verification
of fuel dispensers. OIML Bull. LIV, 19 24 (2013).
11. IBGE. , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2008).
12. Brazilian Central Bank,
http://www4.bcb.gov.br/pec/taxas/port/ptaxnpesq.asp?id=txcot
acao.

61

CONSIDERAES FINAIS


7.1

Concluses da pesquisa


O presente trabalho se props a avaliar o impacto dos erros de medio dos
instrumentos utilizados no comrcio e indstria na economia por meio do clculo da distoro
econmica. Desta forma, foram propostos cinco objetivos especficos contemplando a
contextualizao e justificativa do trabalho, formulao matemtica, simulao das curvas de
distoro econmica para produtos denominados chave para a economia brasileira, o clculo
com dados empricos por meio dos erros de medio para o setor de combustveis
automotivos e, finalmente, a medio da distoro econmica no caso de fraudes, no caso,
para o setor de combustveis.
A metodologia de tese em formato de artigos foi utilizada para a elaborao deste
trabalho, na qual os objetivos especficos foram vinculados a artigos que foram publicados
e/ou submetidos a peridicos de circulao internacional e sujeitos avaliao por pares, para
consolidar os resultados obtidos.
A reviso sistemtica da literatura permitiu identificar as publicao nos ltimos dez
anos relativas metrologia legal aplicada economia e sociedade. As publicaes foram
classificadas em quatro subgrupos principais: economia e sociedade; comrcio internacional;
controle metrolgico legal e metrologia legal em pases em desenvolvimento. No mbito
econmico e social, as pesquisas publicadas esto focadas nos aspectos relativos ao impacto
financeiro e importncia da metrologia nas relaes comerciais e defesa do consumidor. Uma
das lacunas identificadas nas pesquisas foi a medio dos impactos econmicos da metrologia
legal, que permitiu a contextualizao e a justificativa para a realizao deste trabalho.
Com base na lacuna identificada foi proposta uma modelagem matemtica que usou
como base o modelo de insumo-produto elaborado pelo economista Wassily Leontief, com o
objetivo de medir a distoro econmica provinda de erros de medio nos instrumentos
utilizados na indstria e comrcio. O modelo desenvolvido por Leontief permite identificar o
impacto econmico na variao de um produto, tendo como princpio bsico que a entrada de
um processo afeta a sada de um processo relacionado. Assim, foi introduzido no modelo IP
um fator que representa um desvio de medio relativo aos erros dos instrumentos utilizados
e permite avaliar este impacto em toda a economia.
Por meio da modelagem matemtica proposta foi possvel determinar as curvas de
distoro econmica para os setores de commodities, combustveis, minerao e servios de

62

utilidade. O setor de servios de utilidade, agregando gua, eletricidade e esgoto demonstrou


ter o maior distoro econmica com relao aos demais produtos, representando
US$ 995 milhes ou 0,112% do PIB brasileiro, com os dados da ltima matriz IP publicada,
referente ao ano de 2005.
A avaliao da distoro econmica para os combustveis automotivos feita por meio
dos dados empricos de erros de medio para o setor permitiu determinar uma distoro
mdia de US$ 25 milhes. Para a avaliao do setor foi introduzido o clculo da incerteza de
medio representado pela variao estatstica dos dados dos instrumentos em campo, no qual
um valor negativo significa perda para o vendedor e positivo, para o comprador do produto.
Todavia, para o estudo em questo relevante o impacto econmico no setor representado
pela variao da distoro econmica independente da orientao positiva ou negativa.
Similarmente, para a capacidade de medio e calibrao (CMC) no Pas e erros
mximos permitidos, conforme norma internacional para medio de combustveis, estes
valores representam US$ 8 milhes e US$ 414 milhes, respectivamente. Desta forma, foi
possvel concluir que, no Brasil, as perdas advindas destas medies so inferiores ao
permitido pela normalizao internacional, todavia so superiores CMC no pas. A CMC,
no entanto, representa a melhor medio disponvel para volume no pas, em condies
laboratoriais controladas.
Especificamente, quando h a introduo de uma fraude de medio, os resultados
mostram que as incertezas de perdas na economia para o consumidor, no comrcio de etanol,
variam de US$ 54 milhes para US$ 303 milhes para uma fraude com erro de 10% em 1%
dos instrumentos utilizados no mercado. Este valor demonstra um grande impacto na
economia de um erro de medio intencional, que acarreta perdas ao consumidor. Tambm
foi observado linearidade na relao entre distoro econmica e erros advindos de fraudes
para um percentual fixo de instrumentos fraudados no mercado.
Finalmente, por meio da modelagem proposta foi possvel avaliar as perdas na
economia atribudas aos erros de medio dos instrumentos utilizados, tanto no comrcio
como na indstria. A modelagem baseada na formulao IP mostrou-se uma ferramenta
adequada para medio da distoro econmica para a metrologia legal, que permite
eventuais comparaes internacionais entre diferentes economias e o posicionamento nacional
referente s perdas econmicas em estudos futuros. A ferramenta proposta tambm permitiu
identificar, entre os produtos simulados, quais tm um impacto econmico mais significativo
para o pas, com a utilizao deste trabalho para o desenvolvimento de polticas metrolgicas
e de regulamentao na rea, com a possibilidade de alocao de recursos de maneira mais

63

eficiente para os produtos que demandam maior ateno das autoridades pertinentes no campo
da metrologia legal.

7.2

Desenvolvimentos futuros


Uma vez que esta pesquisa props a medio do impacto econmico da metrologia
legal por meio da formulao esttica do modelo de insumo-produto, a aplicao do modelo
dinmico um passo futuro a ser realizado. A formulao dinmica permitir identificar
como um erro de medio impacta imediatamente na produo intermediria e como este
impacto influenciar o produto do qual insumo. O modelo proposto neste estudo apresentou
um aspecto linear entre a distoro econmica e os erros de medio dos instrumentos
utilizados nos processos. Todavia, o modelo dinmico pode introduzir um fator no linear
formulao, sendo os impactos maiores do que os previstos inicialmente nesta pesquisa.
Um segundo aspecto tambm a ser pesquisado refere-se medio emprica da
distoro econmica para outros produtos de relevncia para a economia nacional. Observa-se
que uma vez determinado o impacto emprico, pode-se aplicar o modelo com as matrizes IP
de diversos pases e assim determinar como o Brasil est localizado no que tange
confiabilidade dos resultados das medies na indstria e no comrcio no mundo.

64

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