A Theory of voter experimentation in repeated elections

Nesse artigo, eu desenvolvo e analiso um modelo de dois perí odos em que dois polí ticos competem pela preferência de um eleitor representativo, que sabe quão benevolente é um dos polí ticos mas é imperfeitamente informado sobre quão benevolente é o segundo polí tico. O polí tico conhecido é interpretado como um incumbente de longo prazo, ao passo que o polí tico desconhecido é interpretado como um desa fiante menos conhecido. É estabelecido que o mecanismo de provisão de incentivos inerente às elei cões - que surge através da possibilidade de não reeleger um incumbente - e considerações acerca de aquisi cão de informa cão por parte do eleitor se combinam de modo a determinar que em qualquer equilí brio desse jogo o eleitor escolhe o polí tico desconhecido no per íodo inicial do modelo - uma a cão à qual me refi ro como experimenta cão -, fornecendo assim uma racionaliza cão para a não reelei cão de incumbentes longevos. Especifi camente, eu mostro que a decisão do eleitor quanto a quem eleger no per odo inicial se reduz à compara cão entre os benefí cios informacionais de escolher o polí tico desconhecido e as perdas econômicas de fazê-lo. Os primeiros, que capturam as considera cões relacionadas à aquisi cão de informa cão, são mostrados serem sempre positivos, ao passo que as últimas, que capturam o incentivo à boa performance, são sempre não-negativas, implicando que é sempre ótimo para o eleitor escolher o polí tico desconhecido no per íodo inicial.

On the effects of non-tariff measures on Brazilian exports

This article proposes an alternative methodology for estimating the effects of non-tariff measures on trade flows, based on the recent literature on gravity models. A two-stage Heckman selection model is applied to the case of Brazilian exports, where the second stage gravity equation is theoretically grounded on the seminal Melitz model of heterogeneous firms. This extended gravity equation highlights the role played by zero trade flows as well as firm heterogeneity in explaining bilateral trade among countries, two factors usually omitted in traditional gravity specifications found in previous literature. Last, it also proposes a economic rationale for the effects of NTM on trade flows, helping to shed some light on its main operating channels under a rather simple Cournot’s duopolistic competition framework.

Direito de recesso e respectivo valor de reembolso em companhias

Direito de recesso e valor de reembolso em companhias devem ser interpretados conjuntamente. São duas faces da mesma moeda. A aferição do valor de reembolso, conforme previsto no artigo 45 e respectivos parágrafos da Lei 6.404/1976, não é necessariamente feita pelo valor de patrimônio líquido da companhia. Ali se estabelece apenas um piso, no caso de previsão estatutária sobre o tema. No caso de silencia estatutário, há uma lacuna quanto ao critério de aferição do valor de reembolso. A melhor interpretação é uma interpretação sistemática e finalística da norma, no sentido de que o valor das ações a serem reembolsadas deve ser o valor mais próximo do real. Atualmente, na maioria dos casos, o valor econômico é o que melhor representa o real valor de uma companhia e, portanto, em caso de silencia estatutário, deveria prevalecer como critério de aferição do valor de reembolso. Como fundamentos deste raciocínio, utiliza-se do conceito e função do direito de recesso em companhias, suas características, principalmente a taxatividade de suas hipóteses e possibilidade de reversão da decisão motivadora do recesso, seu histórico legislativo, mormente as influências políticas e econômicas na definição de suas hipóteses. O trabalho analisa, também, como seu elemento de sustentação, a jurisprudência e aborda o entendimento da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários. Ainda como forma de justificar e fundamentar o raciocínio desenvolvido no presente trabalho, os conceitos de eficiência e valor justo e sua possível e pacífica convivência são abordados no item que trata de uma visão de Direito e Economia sobre o tema. Por fim, faz-se uma análise de como, na prática, as companhias de capital aberto tem se comportado com relação a esta questão, por meio da análise de todos os estatutos das companhias listadas na "BMF/BOVESPA" na primeira quinzena de janeiro de 2015.

O projeto de lei geral dos concursos públicos e a “ideologia concurseira”

O artigo trata, fundamentalmente, da análise do Projeto de Lei do Senado nº 6004 de 2013 à luz do conceito da ideologia concurseira. O cerne do trabalho passa pelo entendimento da diferença entre sistemas ideológicos existentes no âmbito acadêmico e pela compreensão dos pressupostos republicanos que guiaram o raciocínio da Administração Pública na determinação de um modelo de seleção de funcionários. O referido projeto de lei surge neste cenário tendente a suprimir lacuna legislativa de regramento específico dos concursos públicos no âmbito federal, no entanto, reproduzindo a ideologia concurseira. Informa o embate o Relatório de Pesquisa “Processos Seletivos para a Contratação de Servidores Públicos: Brasil, o País dos Concursos?”, realizada pela FGV Direito Rio em parceria com a Universidade Federal Fluminense, fruto da iniciativa “Pensando o Direito” da Secretaria de Assuntos Legislativos do Ministério da Justiça.

Análise dos fundamentos do modelo value-based health care delivery à luz das teorias de estratégia

O setor de saúde, globalmente, apresenta problemas relacionados aos seus custos, qualidade e acesso. Porter e Teisberg (2004, 2006) propuseram modelo de gestão específico para a administração estratégica na área, o Value-Based Health Care Delivery (VBHCD). O modelo teve relativa repercussão e vem influenciando muitos atores no setor. Contudo, o modelo vem sendo aceito sem o devido questionamento de seus fundamentos e consistência com a teoria em estratégia. O presente trabalho busca, por meio de um ensaio teórico, analisar o modelo proposto à luz de paradigmas gerais da estratégia empresarial como, por exemplo, o modelo de Porter e a Visão Baseada em Recursos (RBV). Inicialmente, o artigo sintetiza as explicações teóricas do modelo porteriano clássico e da RBV. Em seguida, o VBHCD é examinado comparado a essas explicações, buscando-se relações e, eventualmente, contradições. Conclui-se que o modelo VBHCD não se alinha integralmente a nenhum corpo teórico isoladamente. Mesmo sendo proposto por Porter, parte de seus fundamentos advém, na verdade, de outras correntes teóricas. Esta abordagem integradora de teorias concorrentes, apesar de presente na literatura, ainda apresenta dificuldades e barreiras, um aspecto que não está explícito no modelo

Apuração de haveres na sociedade limitada: uma análise crítica da jurisprudência

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo investigar a apuração de haveres nas sociedades limitadas a partir da análise da jurisprudência, notadamente para compreender o alcance da liberdade de contratar das partes, estabelecido, entre outras normas, no artigo 1.031 do Código Civil. Para tanto, analisaram-se os julgados do STJ, disponíveis no sítio eletrônico da corte e, da mesma forma, os do TJSP, dada a relevância econômica do estado e a existência de câmaras especializadas em direito empresarial, entre o período de 2010 a 2014. Tentou-se construir uma tipologia das questões que compõem o julgamento das cláusulas de apuração de haveres, como, por exemplo, distinção entre forma de apuração e forma de pagamento; e, igualmente, dos fundamentos usados pelos tribunais para afastar ou aplicar as cláusulas. Na segunda seção, fez-se uma análise crítica dos argumentos jurisprudenciais, sob a forma de defesa daqueles que, a nosso sentir, devem validar as cláusulas de apuração de haveres, quais sejam: boa-fé objetiva, função social e os constantes na literatura americana do capital lock in. Além disso, pontua-se sobre o emprego, a nosso sentir, inadequado do “enriquecimento sem causa”, como também da conveniência de se fazer uma aplicação ponderada dos princípios, especialmente quando contrariam uma regra jurídica positivada. Por fim, antes de concluir, comentou-se sobre a forma de apuração de haveres construída pela jurisprudência, a qual denomina-se, neste trabalho, dissolução total simulada.

On the effects of non tariff measures on Brazilian exports

This article proposes an alternative methodology for estimating the effects of non-tariff measures on trade flows, based on the recent literature on gravity models. A two-stage Heckman selection model is applied to the case of Brazilian exports, where the second stage gravity equation is theoretically grounded on the seminal Melitz model of heterogeneous firms. This extended gravity equation highlights the role played by zero trade flows as well as firm heterogeneity in explaining bilateral trade among countries, two factors usually omitted in traditional gravity specifications found in previous literature. Last, it also proposes a economic rationale for the effects of NTM on trade flows, helping to shed some light on its main operating channels under a rather simple Cournot’s duopolistic competition framework

Contratos de aliança e formas híbridas de contratos de construção

Este trabalho analisa a sistemática de contratações inerentes à atividade de construção civil, inserida num ambiente de liberdade de contratação e levando em consideração a criação de modelos atípicos e, portanto, híbridos. Para tal, faz-se necessária uma gama de subsídios: aplicação de argumentos econômicos; capacidade de operacionalizar objetivamente as demandas oriundas de tais modalidades de contratos, que sempre visa maximizar seus resultados; necessidade de velocidade e economia de tempo nas construções. Há de se destacar que os referidos modelos de contrato são híbridos, sim, mas nem por isso ilícitos, posto que, no direito brasileiro, vigora o princípio de liberdade de contratar, desde que tais contratações estejam assentadas em princípios básicos estabelecidos por lei, quais sejam: objeto lícito, agentes capazes e atendimento à forma prescrita ou não defesa em lei. Esse ambiente de liberdade de contratação propiciou a criação de modelos atípicos e moventes de contratos de construção, que variam e se mesclam entre si sob os mais diversos aspectos, com destaque para: alocação de riscos; forma de remuneração e aplicação de penalidades, o que impacta diretamente na forma, conteúdo e valor do orçamento a ser apresentado. Desse modo, é imperioso que as rédeas desses diversos modelos de contratação estejam direcionadas pelo racional econômico, não só em grandes obras de infraestrutura, mas também em outros empreendimentos, fazendo emergir uma cultura de participação entre os contratantes, de forma a propiciar obras mais rápidas e com um menor custo, que seria de fundamental importância para o desenvolvimento do país.

O processo de licenciamento de empreendimentos de infraestrutura no Brasil: estudo de caso da intervenção ambiental no setor elétrico

A adoção da modelagem institucional de governança do processo de avaliação ambiental norte-americano, centrada na figura da agência líder, deverá demandar a edição de uma lei formal, prevendo o referido arranjo jurídico-institucional, na forma de uma moldura (framework) adaptável às necessidades especificas e peculiaridades de cada setor da Administração. Dessa forma, a referida lei formal funcionaria como uma norma geral, e como tal poderia ser complementada pela legislação infralegal, que viria a estabelecer as disposições especificas para dar efetividade ao instituo da agência líder nos setores em que seja desejável e oportuna a implantação do mesmo, a critério da Administração. Destarte, a atuação do Poder Legislativo estaria restrita à introdução ao sistema jurídico doméstico do instituto estrangeiro, estabelecendo apenas seus contornos básicos, cabendo à Administração a avaliação da oportunidade e conveniência da escolha dos setores específicos, do estabelecimento dos contornos normativos e do momento da efetiva regulamentação concreta do instituto.

Flexible information acquisition and optimal Tobin tax in tractable dynamic global games

My dissertation focuses on dynamic aspects of coordination processes such as reversibility of early actions, option to delay decisions, and learning of the environment from the observation of other people’s actions. This study proposes the use of tractable dynamic global games where players privately and passively learn about their actions’ true payoffs and are able to adjust early investment decisions to the arrival of new information to investigate the consequences of the presence of liquidity shocks to the performance of a Tobin tax as a policy intended to foster coordination success (chapter 1), and the adequacy of the use of a Tobin tax in order to reduce an economy’s vulnerability to sudden stops (chapter 2). Then, it analyzes players’ incentive to acquire costly information in a sequential decision setting (chapter 3). In chapter 1, a continuum of foreign agents decide whether to enter or not in an investment project. A fraction λ of them are hit by liquidity restrictions in a second period and are forced to withdraw early investment or precluded from investing in the interim period, depending on the actions they chose in the first period. Players not affected by the liquidity shock are able to revise early decisions. Coordination success is increasing in the aggregate investment and decreasing in the aggregate volume of capital exit. Without liquidity shocks, aggregate investment is (in a pivotal contingency) invariant to frictions like a tax on short term capitals. In this case, a Tobin tax always increases success incidence. In the presence of liquidity shocks, this invariance result no longer holds in equilibrium. A Tobin tax becomes harmful to aggregate investment, which may reduces success incidence if the economy does not benefit enough from avoiding capital reversals. It is shown that the Tobin tax that maximizes the ex-ante probability of successfully coordinated investment is decreasing in the liquidity shock. Chapter 2 studies the effects of a Tobin tax in the same setting of the global game model proposed in chapter 1, with the exception that the liquidity shock is considered stochastic, i.e, there is also aggregate uncertainty about the extension of the liquidity restrictions. It identifies conditions under which, in the unique equilibrium of the model with low probability of liquidity shocks but large dry-ups, a Tobin tax is welfare improving, helping agents to coordinate on the good outcome. The model provides a rationale for a Tobin tax on economies that are prone to sudden stops. The optimal Tobin tax tends to be larger when capital reversals are more harmful and when the fraction of agents hit by liquidity shocks is smaller. Chapter 3 focuses on information acquisition in a sequential decision game with payoff complementar- ity and information externality. When information is cheap relatively to players’ incentive to coordinate actions, only the first player chooses to process information; the second player learns about the true payoff distribution from the observation of the first player’s decision and follows her action. Miscoordination requires that both players privately precess information, which tends to happen when it is expensive and the prior knowledge about the distribution of the payoffs has a large variance.

Motivating sustainable goal choices and providing effective feedback

Overconsumption of natural resources and the associated environmental hazards are one of today’s most pressing global issues. In the western world, individual consumption in homes and workplaces is a key contributor to this problem. Reflecting the importance of individual action in this domain, this thesis focuses on studying and influencing choices related to sustainability and energy consumption made by people in their daily lives. There are three main components to this work. Firstly, this thesis asserts that people frequently make ineffective consumption reduction goal choices and attempts to understand the rationale for these poor choices by fitting them to goalsetting theory, an established theoretical model of behavior change. Secondly, it presents two approaches that attempt to influence goal choice towards more effective targets, one of which deals with mechanisms for goal priming and the other of which explores the idea that carefully designed toys can exert influence on children’s long term consumption behavior patterns. The final section of this thesis deals with the design of feedback to support the performance of environmentally sound activities. Key contributions surrounding goals include the finding that people choose easy sustainable goals despite immediate feedback as to their ineffectiveness and the discussion and study of goal priming mechanisms that can influence this choice process. Contributions within the design of value instilling toys include a theoretically grounded framework for the design of such toys and a completed and tested prototype toy. Finally, contributions in designing effective and engaging energy consumption feedback include the finding that negative feedback is best presented verbally compared with visually and this is exemplified and presented within a working feedback system. The discussions, concepts, prototypes and empirical findings presented in this work will be useful for both environmental psychologists and for HCI researchers studying eco-feedback.

Narrativas do Brasil nas memórias de Pedro Nava

This thesis is a translation of work of the Brazilian doctor, Pedro da Silva Nava (1903-1984), in particular, his memoirs and chronicles, articulated with the writings of medicine history, aiming to defend that the autobiographical narratives are sources of research capable of promoting discussions on the expansion of the present at the confluence of complex and unequal society in constant changing process as the Brazilian. The theoretical and methodological support circulates around studies, proposals and thesis by Boaventura Santos about empowering past, destabilizing subjectivity, sociology of absences, cosmopolitan reason and translation work. The empirical support drawn from the literature produced by Nava were analyzed with reference this reasoning and studies that have facilitated the flow of translation among others, the studies of Antonio Candido, Arrigucci Jr., Boris Cyrulnik, Beatriz Sarlo, Ecléa Bosi, Ítalo Calvino, José Willington Germano, José Maria Cançado, Lev Vygotsky, Marilena Chauí, Paul Ricöeur and Walter Benjamim, without neglecting what we consider indispensable to scientific research, the production of relevant knowledge and prudent, in view of a decent life. The initial inflections reflect the subject of the Memoirs and its education/training, to then place the Memoir subject in the literary context, scientific, historical and Brazilian poetic (1972-2010), bringing great interpreters and discussing the rationale used by the Narrator that we defend stand closer to the cosmopolitan, showing the formation of narratives whose presence insert itself beforehand to modernist verve, linked to the discursive array against the literature as domination space, disseminated in Brazil in the early twentieth century. So, it articulate with those in which the concerns adjust the construction of the social formation of Brazil as a national heritage through literary narrative that focuses on a historical principle that becomes the past empowering, allowing his rereading, whose converge to memory, the lifestyles, the plurality of language and Brazilian culture, formed by several people, converging into a design not of culture but multiculturalism in Brazil. The memory issue was addressed in the space-time of experiences of being that narrates, shaped by a destabilizing subjectivity that sought to order the testimony of a time, a history and society, retelling them by creative imagination, almost fictional, to make circulate his knowledge about Brazil attached to his medical knowledge, as well as other subjects in his living group and other groups with whom they maintained contact. Thus, he portrayed both tangible and intangible cultural assets of the country as a form of preservation, giving them meanings and sense. It approaches, therefore, from the perspective of sociology of absences, the expansion of the present and by the logic inherent in his narratives of self and Brazil

Ensino do processo de enfermagem: significados percepções docentes na formação do enfermeiro

The implementation of the nursing process should be experienced by all nurses during their formative years. However, the lack of implementation of the nursing process for care planning during the educational process and the existing disorder in the formation process prompted the following research questions: What is the meaning of teaching the nursing process to the nursing professors? Do nursing professors use strategies and methods that promote critical thinking in their students? The objective of the study was to analyze the meaning that teaching of the nursing process has for the nursing faculty of the bachalaureate nursing course. Qualitative descriptive study conducted with a sample of 30 faculty members that taught nursing care courses in the nursing program of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal, RN. Two instruments were used, a questionaire and an interview guide. The questionnaire was designed to obtain sociodemographic, educational and work information, of faculty activities and of the teaching of nursing care. The guide was composed of five open questions regarding the understanding and perceptions of the nursing process, its utilization in teaching, and the nursing care teaching strategies. Interview data were submitted to content analysis techniques and interpreted according to the principles of Symbolic Interactionism. Six categories related to the analytical themes were identified: the nursing process as the guide for the care actions; clinical rationality; use of the care activities; teaching relevance; teaching barreirs; teaching strategies with focus on the abilities and competencies of the clinical rationale. Faculty perceptions regarding the teaching of the nursing process; nursing care approach in the nurses‟ formation. The study indicates that the participants understand the relevance of the nursing process a work instrument and that the use of this method during the nurses‟ formation enhances the abilities and competencies for critical thinking that is essencial for care. The strategies for teaching of abilities and competencies were identified, however the nursing faculty should use codes, direction and the influence so that the students can Interact and therefore stimulate the use of the nursing process

Serotonergic neurons in the median raphe nucleus regulate inhibitory avoidance but not escape behavior in the rat elevated T-maze test of anxiety

Rationale: A wealth of evidence supports the involvement of the serotonergic neurons of the median raphe nucleus (MRN) in anxiety. However, it is presently unclear whether serotonergic pathways arising from this nucleus play distinguishing regulatory roles in defensive behaviors that have been associated with specific subtypes of anxiety disorders. Objectives: To evaluate the role of the MRN serotonergic neurons in the regulation of two defensive behaviors, inhibitory avoidance and escape, which have been related, respectively, to generalized anxiety and panic disorders. Methods: Male Wistar rats were submitted to the elevated T-maze test of anxiety after intra-MRN administration of drugs that either non-selectively or selectively change the activity of the serotonergic neurons. Results: Intra-MRN injection of FG 7142 (0.04 and 0.08 nmol) and kainic acid (0.03 and 0.06 nmol), drugs that non-selectively stimulate the MRN serotonergic neurons, facilitated inhibitory avoidance acquisition, but impaired escape performance. Microinjection of muscimol (0.11 and 0.22 nmol), a compound that non-selectively inhibits the activity of the MRN serotonergic neurons, impaired inhibitory avoidance and facilitated escape performance. Both kainic acid and muscimol also changed rat locomotion in the open-field test. Intra-MRN injection of 8-OH-DPAT (0.6-15 nmol) and WAY-100635 (0.18-0.74 nmol), respectively an agonist and an antagonist of somatodendritic 5-HT1A receptors located on serotonergic neurons of the MRN, only affected inhibitory avoidance-while the former inhibited the acquisition of this behavior, the latter facilitated it. Conclusion: MRN serotonergic neurons seem to be selectively involved in the regulation of inhibitory avoidance in the elevated T-maze. This result supports the proposal that 5-HT pathways departing from this nucleus play an important role in anxiety processing, with implications for pathologies such as generalized anxiety disorder.

Anxiety-induced antinociception in mice: effects of systemic and intra-amygdala administration of 8-OH-DPAT and midazolam

Rationale: Mice exhibit antinociception after a single experience in the elevated plus maze (EPM), an animal model of anxiety. Objective: This study investigated the mechanisms involved in this form of anxiety-induced antinociception. Methods: Nociception was evaluated by means of the writhing test in mice confined either to the open or enclosed arms of the EPM. The effects of systemic (naloxone, midazolam and 8-OH-DPAT) or intra-amygdala (8-OH-DPAT. NAN-190 and midazolam) drug infusions were investigated in mice previously treated i.p. with 0.6% acetic acid, an algic stimulus that induces abdominal contortions. The effects of these drugs on conventional measures of anxiety (% entries and % time in open arms) in a standard EPM test were also independently investigated. Results: Open-arm confinement resulted in a high-magnitude antinociception (minimum 85%, maximum 450%) compared with enclosed arm confinement. The opiate antagonist naloxone (1 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg) neither blocked this open arm-induced antinociception (OAIA) nor modified indices of anxiety in EPM. Administration of midazolam (0.5-2 mg/kg, s.c.) increased OAIA and produced antinociception in enclosed confined animals, as well as attenuating anxiety in the EPM. The 5-HT(1A) receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT (0.05-1 mg/kg, s.c.) had biphasic effects on OAIA, antagonising the response at the lowest dose and intensifying it at the highest dose. In addition, low doses of this agent reduced anxiety in the EPM. Although bilateral injections of 8-OH-DPAT (5.6 nmol/0.4 mu l) or NAN-190 (5.6 nmol and 10 nmol/0.4 mu l) into the amygdala did not alter OAIA, increased anxiety was observed in the EPM. In contrast, intra-amygdala administration of midazolam (10 nmol and 30 nmol/0.4 mu l) blocked both OAIA and anxiety. Conclusions: These results with systemic and intracerebral drug infusion suggest that 5-HT(1A) receptors localised in the amygdala are not involved in the pain inhibitory processes that are recruited during aversive situations. However, activation of these receptors does phasically increase anxiety. Although the intrinsic antinociceptive properties of systemically administered midazolam confounded interpretation of its effects on OAIA, intra-amygdala injections of this compound suggest that benzodiazepine receptors in this brain region modulate both the antinociceptive and behavioural (anxiety) responses to the EPM.