Voter turnout, inflation, and the politics of macroeconomic policy: an empirical essay

This thesis tests some hypotheses regarding the impact of voter turnout on inflation on the assumption that macroeconomic policies depend on voters’ and politicians’ preferences. The work’s empirical basis includes data from 111 nations from the developing world, covering the period from 1978 to 2000. Its main finding indicates that increases in voter turnout co-vary with higher inflation rates, all else held constant.

Web 2.0, dilemmas 1.0: essay on an evolving market

Today the Internet is entwined into our everyday society. From the beginning days in 1980 to today, the Internet has been evolving. The creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, envisioned that the Internet would be a system with everything connected to everything. The web today is changing with new applications arriving from outside the previous channels of the megalithic software companies. Thousands of individual developers are creating micro-applications to enhance the earlier framework of the web. This revolution has been coined "Web 2.0". Many observers today are skeptical that Web 2.0 is really a revolution at all, but maybe is just a continuation of Berners-Lee's original concept. This paper examines, based on a critical literature review, the discussions taking place regarding Web 2.0.

An essay about the effect of vague accounting standards on the decision making process of auditors

Vague words and expressions are present throughout the standards that comprise the accounting and auditing professions. Vagueness is considered to be a significant source of inexactness in many accounting decision problems and many authors have argued that the neglect of this issue may cause accounting information to be less useful. On the other hand, we can assume that the use of vague terms in accounting standards is inherent to principle based standards (different from rule based standards) and that to avoid vague terms, standard setters would have to incur excessive transaction costs. Auditors are required to exercise their own professional judgment throughout the audit process and it has been argued that the inherent vagueness in accounting standards may influence their decision making processes. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the decision making process of auditors and to investigate whether vague accounting standards create a problem for the decision making process of auditors, or lead to a better outcome. This paper makes the argument that vague standards prompt the use of System 2 type processing by auditors, allowing more comprehensive analytical thinking; therefore, reducing the biases associated with System 1 heuristic processing. If our argument is valid, the repercussions of vague accounting standards are not as negative as presented in previous literature, instead they are positive.

An essay on impression management: three randomized experiments with financial analysts

This thesis aims to explore the concept of impression management from the financial analysts’ point of view. Impression management is the definition of the act of an agent manipulating an impression that another person have of this agent, in the context of this thesis it happens when a company make graphics to disclosure financial-accounting information in order to manipulate the market’s perception of their performance. Three types of impression management were analyzed: presentation enhancement (color manipulation), measurement distortion (scale manipulation) and selectivity (the disclosure of positive information only). While presentation enhancement improved only the most impulsive financial analysts’ perception of firm’s performance, the measurement distortion improved the perception of performance for both groups of financial analysts (impulsive and reflective). Finally, selectivity improved the financial analysts’ perception of firm’s performance for both groups (impulsive and reflective), although impulsive financial analysts assigned lower ratings when compared to their reflective peers, on average, to a hypothetical company.

An essay on private equity: the history and fundamentals of fundraising in Brazil

O impacto positivo dos investimentos de Private Equity e Venture Capital (PE/VC) na economia e no mercado de capitais está amplamente documentado pela literatura acadêmica internacional. Nos últimos 40 anos, diversos autores têm estudado a influência desta classe de ativos na criação, no desenvolvimento e na transformação de milhares de empresas ao redor do mundo, especialmente nos Estados Unidos. Entretanto, os estudos sobre os determinantes da captação de recursos de PE/VC têm se desenvolvido apenas mais recentemente, e seus resultados estão longe de ser uma unanimidade. No Brasil, a pesquisa sobre a indústria de PE/VC ainda é escassa. Embora a indústria local venha crescendo rapidamente desde 2006, tendo alcançado US$36,1 bilhões em capital comprometido em 2009, ainda não há estudos sobre as variáveis que influenciam na alocação de capital pelos investidores nesta modalidade de investimento no Brazil. Entender esta dinâmica é importante para o equilíbrio e a eficiência de mercado. Baseado no trabalho de Gompers e Lerner (1998) sobre os determinantes da indústria de PE/VC nos Estados Unidos, este trabalho contribui com a literatura de PE/VC ao: (i) revisitar o começo desta indústria no Brasil; e (ii) identificar quais as variáveis influenciam no desenvolvimento da indústria de PE/VC local. Os resultados deste estudo contribuem para o desenvolvimento acadêmico da indústria de PE/VC no Brasil. Além disso, as discussões aqui apresentadas poderão impactar outras áreas de estudo que são permeadas pelo tema, tais como Gestão de Investimentos, Governança Corporativa, Empreendedorismo e Estratégia. Profissionais de mercado também deverão se interessar no trabalho. As discussões sobre a história e os fundamentos da indústria fornecem aos investidores, empreendedores, gestores de investimentos e formuladores de políticas públicas, entre outros, um melhor entendimento sobre como o ecossistema de PE/VC funciona no Brasil.