Are CGE Models still useful in economic policy making?

This paper develops background considerations to help better framing the results of a CGE exercise. Three main criticisms are usually addressed to CGE efforts. First, they are too aggregate, their conclusions failing to shed light on relevant sectors or issues. Second, they imply huge data requirements. Timeliness is frequently jeopardised by out-dated sources, benchmarks referring to realities gone by. Finally, results are meaningless, as they answer wrong or ill-posed questions. Modelling demands end up by creating a rather artificial context, where the original questions lose content. In spite of a positive outlook on the first two, crucial questions lie in the third point. After elaborating such questions, and trying to answer some, the text argues that CGE models can come closer to reality. If their use is still scarce to give way to a fruitful symbiosis between negotiations and simulation results, they remain the only available technique providing a global, inter-related way of capturing economy-wide effects of several different policies. International organisations can play a major role supporting and encouraging improvements. They are also uniquely positioned to enhance information and data sharing, as well as putting people from various origins together, to share their experiences. A serious and complex homework is however required, to correct, at least, the most dangerous present shortcomings of the technique.

O Brasil e as Forças Armadas na percepção dos oficiais da Marinha

Este relatório é resultado de uma pesquisa efetuada em novembro de 1998 junto a 94 oficiais da Marinha que estavam cursando os seguintes cursos da Escola de Guerra Naval (EGN): Curso de Política e Estratégia Marítimas (CPEM), Curso de Estado Maior para Oficiais (C-EMOS) e Curso Superior (CSup). 1 A EGN, situada na Praia Vermelha, Rio de Janeiro, é o estabelecimento de ensino de mais alto nível da Marinha. Os três cursos mencionados têm as seguintes características: o C-PEM, criado em 1984, é destinado a complementar a qualificação dos oficiais, para o exercício de cargos da alta administração naval;2 o C-EMOS tem por finalidade o exercício de funções de estado-maior e de assessoria de alto nível, com ênfase em planejamento estratégico e operações navais, e o C-Sup visa ao exercício de funções de assessoria de alto nível, com ênfase em administração. O C-EMOS e o C-Sup são cursados por oficiais com a patente de capitão-de-corveta,3 e o C-PEM pelos capitães-de-mar-e-guerra, os comandantes.

Can a great resume hurt? Gender and contrast effects on recruiting

Recruiters make many inferences about applicants' abilities and interpersonal attributes on the basis of applicants' resumes. For example, every once in a while, a good resume leaves a strong positive impression and the recruiter creates a high expectation for the selection interview. What if a disappointing interview follows? Will the great resume help or hurt the candidate? The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of a good resume on the recruiter’s evaluation of a candidate when a non-enthusiastic interview follows as well as the interacting role of gender. The results of two online experiments (n=454) where participants played the role of the recruiter, showed that, on average, a very good resume (vs. no resume) before a non-enthusiastic interview did not affect the recruiter’s evaluation of the candidate. However, when the recruiter’s and the candidate’s gender were taken into consideration, a different picture emerged. While no effect was found for male recruiters, the candidate’s resume had a clear significant impact on female recruiter’s evaluations: when the candidate was also a female, the good resume shown before the non-enthusiastic interview performance tended to help, whereas when the candidate was a male, the good resume had a significant negative effect on female recruiters’ evaluation of the candidate. In sum, in situations where the resume had a strong impact on the recruiter’s evaluation (female recruiters), the direction of the effect was moderated by the candidate’s gender. Gender differences in information processing as well as in-group/out-group biases due to gender matching are used to hypothesize and explain the main findings.