Fama conta a história da HME

Aqui tem uma reportagem sobre as contribuições de Fama e Shiller para as Finanças

Fasb recua em Seguros

O Financial Accounting Standards Board decidiu recuar no projeto conjunto com o International Accounting Standards Board na área de seguros. Em lugar da proposta conjunta, o Fasb optou por uma abordagem própria, informou Compliance Week .

Este recuo é importante já que a proposta conjunta estava em audiência pública. Mas o retorno obtido desta audiência não foi muito positivo. A proposta era abranger toda entidade que lidam com contratos de seguros, não somente as seguradoras.

Aparentemente o Fasb decidiu recomeçar das normas existentes hoje nos Estados Unidos e fazer melhorias, em lugar de fazer alterações radicais. Isto pode antecipar o que irá ocorrer, por exemplo, com a norma conjunta de arrendamento (leasing). A proposta para leasing das duas entidades sofre pesadas críticas por sua complexidade.

Listas: A Cidade mais Cara do Mundo

1. Cingapura (foto)

2. Paris

3. Oslo

4. Zurique

5. Sidnei

6. Caracas, Melbourne, Tóquio e Gênova

10. Copenhagen

Fonte: Aqui

Discriminação e Concorrência

Uma constatação interessante: a proporção de minorias na City londrina é muito maior que nas “artes”. Isto é curioso, já que esperaríamos que os “artistas” fossem mais modernos e liberais.

O blog Stumbling and Mumbling considera algumas explicações: (1) o fato dos hindus serem bons com os números, essencial nos empregos de finanças; (2) o efeito Ron Atkinson.

No segundo caso, o blog lembra Gary Becker que afirmou que o grande inimigo da discriminação é a concorrência. No Brasil, uma das primeiras profissões de destaque onde os negros se destacaram foi no futebol. Quando está em jogo a vitória, os clubes fazem um grande esforço para contratar os melhores, independente da cor. Assim, os clubes que começaram a contratar negros na década de vinte perceberam que ganhariam mais partidas como melhores equipes. Assim, a discriminação racial no futebol ficou no passado.

Nas artes do Reino Unido é muito difícil medir o desempenho. Assim, a concorrência não é tão relevante, abrindo espaço para o “branco” de segunda categoria em lugar de uma pessoa de outra raça.

As medidas de redução do racismo no Brasil parece não contemplar este aspecto. Estão mais preocupados em garantir, por lei, “reservas de mercado”. É mais fácil lutar por isto do que pelo aumento da concorrência. Afinal, aumentar a concorrência implica em acabar com monopólios e oligopólios. E isto interessa a classe dirigente?

Erro no Excel

Confiamos muitos nas ferramentas modernas de cálculo. Mas em alguns casos podemos ser induzido a erros. Veja uma conta de multiplicação no Excel:

O resultado está errado, já que deveria terminar em "21" não em "00". Isto ocorre em razão de um arrendondamento que é feito pela planilha para número elevados, com mais de 15 dígitos. 

Rir é o melhor remédio

Dinheiro, Status e Ovulação

(Feb. 26, 2014) -- For approximately one week every month, millions of women change their economic behavior and become more focused on their social standing relative to other women.

According to new research from The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, the ovulatory cycle alters women's behavior by subconsciously motivating them to outdo other women. This research could have important implications for marketers, consumers and researchers.

The researchers conducted three studies, one of which had ovulating and non-ovulating women play the "dictator game." In this popular economic experiment, a person is given a fixed amount of money that she can choose to share with another person.

"We found that ovulating women were much less willing to share when the other person was another woman. They became meaner to other women," said Kristina Durante, assistant professor of marketing in the UTSA College of Business and lead author of the study.

Whereas non-ovulating women shared about 50 percent of the money with another woman, ovulating women shared only half as much, keeping the rest of the cash for themselves.

In another study, women made product choices that could either maximize their individual gains or maximize their relative gains compared to other women. For example, women indicated if they preferred to have a $25,000 car while other women got $40,000 cars (Option A) or have a $20,000 car while other women got $12,000 cars (Option B). The study found that ovulating women preferred Option B, choosing products that would give them higher standing compared to other women.

"What's interesting about this finding is that ovulating women are so concerned about their relative position that they are willing to take less for themselves just so that they could outdo other women," said study co-author Vladas Griskevicius, associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

But, the studies find that ovulation doesn't always make women want more status. When women played against a man rather than a woman in the dictator game, the researchers found an even more surprising result. Whereas ovulating women became meaner to women, they became nicer to men. While non-ovulating women shared about 45 percent of the money with a man, ovulating women gave 60 percent of the money to the man.

"These findings are unlike anything we have ever seen in the dictator game. You just don't see people giving away more than half of their money," noted Durante. "One possibility is that we're seeing ovulating women share more money as a way to flirt with the men."

"Money, Status and the Ovulatory Cycle" was published in the February issue of Journal of Marketing Research and builds on Durante and Griskevicius' previous work that has shown how the ovulatory cycle alters preferences for romantic partners, clothing, food and even politics. Based on studies rooted in theory and research in evolutionary biology and evolutionary consumer behavior, their findings that ovulating women jockey for position over other women is consistent with the literature on animals. For example, studies have shown that female monkeys become more aggressive toward other females when fertile.

Ultimately, Durante and Griskevicius' findings on women's monthly hormonal fluctuations could have important implications for consumers, marketers and researchers. Marketers especially might be able to use this information strategically by emphasizing the superiority of a given product in advertising, promotions and messages to female consumers.

>> Read the complete article about the research.

Abstract:

Each month, millions of women experience an ovulatory cycle that regulates fertility. Previous consumer research has found that this cycle influences women's clothing and food preferences. The authors propose that the ovulatory cycle actually has a much broader effect on women's economic behavior. Drawing on theory in evolutionary psychology, the authors hypothesize that the week-long period near ovulation should boost women's desire for relative status, which should alter their economic decisions. Findings from three studies show that women near ovulation seek positional goods to improve their social standing. Additional findings reveal that ovulation leads women to pursue positional goods when doing so improves relative standing compared with other women but not compared with men. When playing the dictator game, for example, ovulating women gave smaller offers to a female partner but not to a male partner. Overall, women's monthly hormonal fluctuations seem to have a substantial effect on consumer behavior by systematically altering their positional concerns, a finding that has important implications for marketers, consumers, and researchers.

http://journals.ama.org/doi/abs/10.1509/jmr.11.0327