Public investment and the risk premium for equity

Analysis of the equity premium puzzle has focused on private-sector capital markets. However, the existence of an anomalous equity premium raises important issues in the evaluation of public-sector investment projects. These issues are explored below. We begin by formalizing the argument that an equity premium may arise from uninsurable systematic risk in labour income, and show that, other things being equal, increases in public ownership of equity will improve welfare, up to the point where the equity premium is eliminated. Finally, we consider policy implications and the optimal extent of public ownership.

Putting the group back into unions: A social psychological contribution to understanding union support

Industrial relations research that attempts to grapple with individuals' union-related sentiments and activities often draws on one of two traditions of psychological research—the individual-level factors tradition (for example, personality and attitude-behaviour relations) and the social context tradition (for example, frustration-aggression and relative deprivation). This paper provides an overview of research conducted from within these traditions to explain union-related phenomena and identifies some of the limitations that arise as a consequence of a shared tendency to treat people in an atomistic fashion. The paper argues for an understanding of the psychological processes that underpin group-based action. To this end, it elaborates a theoretical framework based on social identity theory and self-categorisation theory that would allow us to examine the dynamic interplay between the individual, their cognitions and their environment. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of a specific case of union mobilisation, to indicate how this theoretical framework might aid empirical analysis.

Emergence of joint attention: Relationships between gaze following, social referencing, imitation, and naming in infancy

The authors investigated the extent to which the joint-attention behaviors of gaze following, social referencing, and object-directed imitation were related to each other and to infants vocabulary development in a sample of 60 infants between the ages of 8 and 14 months. Joint-attention skills and vocabulary development were assessed in a laboratory setting. Split-half reliability analyses on the joint-attention measures indicated that the tasks reliably assessed infants' capabilities. In the main analysis, no significant correlations were found among the joint-attention behaviors except for a significant relationship between gaze following and the number of names in infants' productive vocabularies. The overall pattern of results did not replicate results of previous studies (e.g., M. Carpenter, K. Nagell, & M. Tomasello, 1998) that found relationships between various emerging joint-attention behaviors.

Agenda social registro civil de nascimento e documenta????o b??sica: comit??s gestores da agenda social

Esta ?? uma iniciativa de gest??o para implementa????o da Agenda Social Registro Civil de Nascimento e Documenta????o B??sica, envolvendo uma rede de ??rg??os e institui????es de diversos poderes da Rep??blica nos tr??s n??veis administrativos do estado brasileiro, bem como institui????es da sociedade civil e organismos internacionais, a partir da atua????o de comit??s gestores em n??vel central e descentralizados. A agenda possibilitou intervir na forma????o de uma cultura de inclus??o a partir da documenta????o civil, com base na realiza????o das campanhas em n??vel nacional. Um dos resultados da implementa????o da agenda ?? a queda do ??ndice de sub-registro de nascidos vivos, que era de 20,9% em 2002, e passou para 12,2% em 2007

O censo Suas como processo de aprimoramento e institucionaliza????o da pol??tica de assist??ncia social no Brasil

O Censo Suas ?? um processo de monitoramento que coleta dados por meio de um formul??rio eletr??nico preenchido pelas secretarias e conselhos de Assist??ncia Social. ?? realizado anualmente desde 2007, por meio de uma a????o integrada entre a Secretaria de Assist??ncia Social e a Secretaria de Avalia????o e Gest??o da Informa????o. Esse processo alcan??ou sua maturidade com a incorpora????o de novos question??rios para a coleta de informa????es sobre ??rg??os gestores, Conselhos e entidades privadas de Assist??ncia Social. Em 2010, 99,2% dos munic??pios preencheram 28.519 question??rios. Assim, a Assist??ncia Social aprimorou seu processo de tomada de decis??o, expandindo a rede e a cobertura dos servi??os. Com os indicadores e as metas de desenvolvimento dos Centros de Refer??ncia de Assist??ncia Social (Cras), apurados com base no Censo, foram retroalimentados a????es e projetos de assist??ncia social, institu??dos processos gradativos de adequa????o dos servi??os ??s normas e constitu??dos processos de planejamento para melhoria da gest??o e do controle social do Sistema ??nico de Assist??ncia Social (Suas)

Atendimento programado do Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social

Em agosto de 2005, foi criada a Diretoria de Atendimento do Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social (Dirat/INSS), com a incumb??ncia de priorizar a redu????o do atendimento presencial, ampliando os mecanismos de atendimento remoto da popula????o. Entre as a????es para a melhoria do atendimento est??o a implanta????o do agendamento eletr??nico programado, a amplia????o dos servi??os de teleatendimento e a gest??o das vagas disponibilizadas pelas Ag??ncias da Previd??ncia Social. Esse trabalho resultou em um atendimento resolutivo, utiliza????o mais racional da for??a de trabalho nas Ag??ncias e redu????o do tempo de espera por atendimento nas filas das Ag??ncias da Previd??ncia Social