Missão aduana brasileira, sob a ótica empresarial

An investigation about the mission of brazilian customs, mainly on its relationship with the economic activity, complemented by historical aspects ans views of other stackholders.

Institucionalização do ensino em administração de empresas na cidade de São Paulo: um estudo de caso sobre a Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo (FEA-USP)

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender o processo de institucionalização do curso de graduação em Administração de Empresas da Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo (FEA-USP), tendo como referencial teórico o modelo de Barley e Tolbert (1997). Explorando aspectos históricos para tentar explicar o “espírito do tempo” (Zeitgeist) e ilustrar o processo de surgimento de uma nova graduação para a USP, a metodologia do estudo de caso (YIN, 2001) foi a escolhida por permitir uma maior gama de recursos de pesquisa. Dessa forma, o trabalho analisou as Atas de Reunião da Congregação da época (1946-1965), entrevistas colhidas com quinze pessoas entre protagonistas e observadores da história desta instituição durante o período analisado, jornais publicados pelos próprios alunos da Faculdade e bibliografia sobre o assunto. Utilizando-se de conceitos presentes em Giddens (1979, 1986), Machado-da-Silva, Fonseca e Crubellate (2005), DiMaggio e Powell (1983), Hardy e Maguire (2008), Khurana (2007), entre outros autores que trabalham com a Teoria Institucional, o processo de institucionalização do curso de Administração de Empresas na FEA-USP é analisado, relacionando-se a literatura disponível com os fatos encontrados em documentos e depoimentos colhidos. Alguns acontecimentos chamam a atenção, como a demora em mais de uma década para a fundação da FEA dentro da USP, a ligação da cadeira de Ciência da Administração com o Instituto de Administração (IA), que teve sua gênese a partir do Departamento do Serviço Público (DSP), órgão ligado ao Governo do Estado de São Paulo. Singularidades à parte, houve pessoas e situações necessárias para que o curso surgisse na USP apenas a partir da década de 1960. Nesse sentido, os papéis desempenhados pelo Prof. Antônio Delfim Netto e pelo Prof. Ruy Aguiar da Silva Leme são explorados com maior detalhamento, tendo em vista o grande impacto que suas decisões tiveram no processo de criação e estabelecimento da carreira de administração. De fato, tem-se que as instituições, com ênfase nesta pesquisa sobre a FEA-USP, são locais propícios para o estudo da mudança e que os atores sociais através de suas ações empreendidas são capazes de gerar modificação ou reprodução do status quo dentro destes estabelecimentos. As instituições constituem possibilidades para aqueles que a compõem ao mesmo tempo em que constrangem ações e são necessárias na sociedade tal qual como é apresentada na modernidade.

The BRICS: some historical experiences, growth challenges and opportunities

The acronym BRICS was a fad among the media and global investors. Now, the acronym sounds passé. However, the group of countries remains important, from both political and economic reasons. They have a large aggregate size, 28% of the global GDP and 42% of the world’s population, high growth potential due to the current significant misallocation of resources and relatively low stock of human capital, structural transformation is in progress and one of them, China, is taking steps to become a global power and a challenger to the US dominance. This paper provides a brief overview of the five economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. We focus on some aspects of their history, the Chinese initiatives in international finance and geopolitical strategic moves, their growth experience and structural transformation over the last 35 years, trade and investment integration into the global economy and among themselves, the growth challenges faced by their economies and the potential gains to the Brazilian economy from a stronger integration with the other BRICS. In association with its efforts to be a global power, China aims to become a major player in global finance and to achieve the status of global currency for the renminbi, which would be the first currency of an emerging economy to attain such position. Despite the similarities, the BRICS encompass very diverse economies. In the recent decades, China and India showed stellar growth rates. On the other hand, Brazil, Russia and South Africa have expanded just in line with global output growth with the Russian economy exhibiting high volatility. China is by far the largest economy, and South Africa the smallest, the only BRICS economy with a GDP lower than US$ 1 trillion. Russia abandoned communism almost 25 years ago, but reversed many of the privatizations of 90’s. China is still ruled by communism, but has a vibrant private sector and recently has officially declared market forces to play a dominant role in its economy. Brazil, Russia and South Africa are global natural resources powerhouses and commodity exporters while China and India are large commodity importers. Brazil is relatively closed to international trade of goods and services, in marked contrast to the other four economies. Brazil, India and South Africa are dependent on external capital flows whereas China and Russia are capital exporters. India and South Africa have younger populations and a large portion living below the poverty line. Despite its extraordinary growth experience that lifted many millions from poverty, China still has 28% of its population classified as poor. Russia and China have much older populations and one of their challenges is to deal with the effects of a declining labor force in the near future. India, China and South Africa face a long way to urbanization, while Brazil and Russia are already urbanized countries. China is an industrial economy but its primary sector still absorbs a large pool of workers. India is not, but the primary sector employs also a large share of the labor force. China’s aggregate demand structure is biased towards investment that has been driving its expansion. Brazil and South Africa have an aggregate demand structure similar to the developed economies, with private consumption accounting for approximately 70%. The same similarity applies to the supply side, as in both economies the share of services nears 70%. The development problem is a productivity problem, so microeconomic reforms are badly needed to foster long-term growth of the BRICS economies since they have lost steam due a variety of factors, but fundamentally due to slower total factor productivity growth. China and India are implementing ambitious reform programs, while Brazil is dealing with macroeconomic disequilibria. Russia and South Africa remain mute about structural reforms. There are some potential benefits to Brazil to be extracted from a greater economic integration with the BRICS, particularly in natural resources intensive industries and services. Necessary conditions to the materialization of those gains are the removal of the several sources of resource misallocation and strong investment in human capital.