This work consists of four chapters and is divided into two distinct parts. The first is related to models of the term structure estimated for countries whose sovereign bonds are considered defaultable. The second part is about growth and convergence. In the first article of the first part, we used a no- arbitrage term structure model and chose three eurozone countries for this analysis: Spain, Greece and Italy. We noted that the country s debt has played an important role in the recent expansion of spreads, especially for Greece and Italy. For Spain, the recent increase in spreads has been driven primarily by variables related to Germany (Germany s debt is the most important among them), and market stress (represented by a highyield index). In the second article of the first part, we use a no-arbitrage model to investigate the determinants of the term structure of sovereign spreads and the expectations of the exchange rate in Brazil. Our exercises suggest that factors related to the Brazilian economy had a positive contribution to the 1999-2006 spreads and, in most of the period, factors related to the U.S. economy had a negative contribution. Since late 2007, this scenario has inverted. Furthermore, we present evidence that the improvement in our external solvency indicator along with the improved inflation scenario are the main responsible for the reduction of spreads from the middle of 2007 on. The first article of the second part proposes a semi-parametric approach to control unobserved heterogeneity in linear regression models. We use extreme neurotic networks estimators and the model is illustrated in an application to the convergence of per capita income across Brazilian municipalities. Finally, in the second article of the second part, we explore recent developments on industrial productivity convergence. We find that productivity growth is negatively related to initial productivity, but that countries with worse institutions have lower level of productivity in equilibrium. The rate of productivity growth also has a nonmonotonic relationship with trade openness and education, being faster at the extremes.