08 março 2015
Educação: Meninas deixando os meninos pra trás
It is a problem that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago.
Until the 1960s boys spent longer and went further in school than girls,
and were more likely to graduate from university. Now, across the rich
world and in a growing number of poor countries, the balance has tilted
the other way. Policymakers who once fretted about girls’ lack of
confidence in science now spend their time dangling copies of “Harry
Potter” before surly boys. Sweden has commissioned research into its
“boy crisis”. Australia has devised a reading programme called “Boys,
Blokes, Books & Bytes”. In just a couple of generations, one gender
gap has closed, only for another to open up.
The reversal is laid out in a report published on March 5th by the OECD, a Paris-based rich-country think-tank. Boys’ dominance just about endures in maths: at age 15 they are, on average, the equivalent of three months’ schooling ahead of girls. In science the results are fairly even. But in reading, where girls have been ahead for some time, a gulf has appeared. In all 64 countries and economies in the study, girls outperform boys. The average gap is equivalent to an extra year of schooling.
The OECD deems literacy to be the most important skill that it
assesses, since further learning depends on it. Sure enough, teenage
boys are 50% more likely than girls to fail to achieve basic proficiency
in any of maths, reading and science (see chart 1). Youngsters in this
group, with nothing to build on or shine at, are prone to drop out of
school altogether.
To see why boys and girls fare so differently in the classroom, first
look at what they do outside it. The average 15-year-old girl devotes
five-and-a-half hours a week to homework, an hour more than the average
boy, who spends more time playing video games and trawling the internet.
Three-quarters of girls read for pleasure, compared with little more
than half of boys. Reading rates are falling everywhere as screens draw
eyes from pages, but boys are giving up faster. The OECD found that,
among boys who do as much homework as the average girl, the gender gap
in reading fell by nearly a quarter.
Once in the classroom, boys long to be out of it. They are twice as likely as girls to report that school is a “waste of time”, and more often turn up late. Just as teachers used to struggle to persuade girls that science is not only for men, the OECD now urges parents and policymakers to steer boys away from a version of masculinity that ignores academic achievement. “There are different pressures on boys,” says Mr Yip. “Unfortunately there’s a tendency where they try to live up to certain expectations in terms of [bad] behaviour.”
Boys’ disdain for school might have been less irrational when there were plenty of jobs for uneducated men. But those days have long gone. It may be that a bit of swagger helps in maths, where confidence plays a part in boys’ lead (though it sometimes extends to delusion: 12% of boys told the OECD that they were familiar with the mathematical concept of “subjunctive scaling”, a red herring that fooled only 7% of girls). But their lack of self-discipline drives teachers crazy.
Perhaps because they can be so insufferable, teenage boys are often marked down. The OECD found that boys did much better in its anonymised tests than in teacher assessments. The gap with girls in reading was a third smaller, and the gap in maths—where boys were already ahead—opened up further. In another finding that suggests a lack of even-handedness among teachers, boys are more likely than girls to be forced to repeat a year, even when they are of equal ability.
What is behind this discrimination? One possibility is that teachers mark up students who are polite, eager and stay out of fights, all attributes that are more common among girls. In some countries, academic points can even be docked for bad behaviour. Another is that women, who make up eight out of ten primary-school teachers and nearly seven in ten lower-secondary teachers, favour their own sex, just as male bosses have been shown to favour male underlings. In a few places sexism is enshrined in law: Singapore still canes boys, while sparing girls the rod.
Some countries provide an environment in which boys can do better. In Latin America the gender gap in reading is relatively small, with boys in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru trailing girls less than they do elsewhere. Awkwardly, however, this nearly always comes with a wider gender gap in maths, in favour of boys. The reverse is true, too: Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which have got girls up to parity with boys in maths, struggle with uncomfortably wide gender gaps in reading. Since 2003, the last occasion when the OECD did a big study, boys in a few countries have caught up in reading and girls in several others have significantly narrowed the gap in maths. No country has managed both.
Girls’ educational dominance persists after school. Until a few
decades ago men were in a clear majority at university almost everywhere
(see chart 2), particularly in advanced courses and in science and
engineering. But as higher education has boomed worldwide, women’s
enrolment has increased almost twice as fast as men’s. In the OECD women
now make up 56% of students enrolled, up from 46% in 1985. By 2025 that
may rise to 58%.
Even in the handful of OECD countries where women are in the minority
on campus, their numbers are creeping up. Meanwhile several, including
America, Britain and parts of Scandinavia, have 50% more women than men
on campus. Numbers in many of America’s elite private colleges are more
evenly balanced. It is widely believed that their opaque admissions
criteria are relaxed for men.
The feminisation of higher education was so gradual that for a long time it passed unremarked. According to Stephan Vincent-Lancrin of the OECD, when in 2008 it published a report pointing out just how far it had gone, people “couldn’t believe it”.
Women who go to university are more likely than their male peers to graduate, and typically get better grades. But men and women tend to study different subjects, with many women choosing courses in education, health, arts and the humanities, whereas men take up computing, engineering and the exact sciences. In mathematics women are drawing level; in the life sciences, social sciences, business and law they have moved ahead.
Social change has done more to encourage women to enter higher education than any deliberate policy. The Pill and a decline in the average number of children, together with later marriage and childbearing, have made it easier for married women to join the workforce. As more women went out to work, discrimination became less sharp. Girls saw the point of study once they were expected to have careers. Rising divorce rates underlined the importance of being able to provide for yourself. These days girls nearly everywhere seem more ambitious than boys, both academically and in their careers. It is hard to believe that in 1900-50 about half of jobs in America were barred to married women.
So are women now on their way to becoming the dominant sex? Hanna Rosin’s book, “The End of Men and the Rise of Women”, published in 2012, argues that in America, at least, women are ahead not only educationally but increasingly also professionally and socially. Policymakers in many countries worry about the prospect of a growing underclass of ill-educated men. That should worry women, too: in the past they have typically married men in their own social group or above. If there are too few of those, many women will have to marry down or not at all.
Continua aqui
The reversal is laid out in a report published on March 5th by the OECD, a Paris-based rich-country think-tank. Boys’ dominance just about endures in maths: at age 15 they are, on average, the equivalent of three months’ schooling ahead of girls. In science the results are fairly even. But in reading, where girls have been ahead for some time, a gulf has appeared. In all 64 countries and economies in the study, girls outperform boys. The average gap is equivalent to an extra year of schooling.
xx > xy?
Once in the classroom, boys long to be out of it. They are twice as likely as girls to report that school is a “waste of time”, and more often turn up late. Just as teachers used to struggle to persuade girls that science is not only for men, the OECD now urges parents and policymakers to steer boys away from a version of masculinity that ignores academic achievement. “There are different pressures on boys,” says Mr Yip. “Unfortunately there’s a tendency where they try to live up to certain expectations in terms of [bad] behaviour.”
Boys’ disdain for school might have been less irrational when there were plenty of jobs for uneducated men. But those days have long gone. It may be that a bit of swagger helps in maths, where confidence plays a part in boys’ lead (though it sometimes extends to delusion: 12% of boys told the OECD that they were familiar with the mathematical concept of “subjunctive scaling”, a red herring that fooled only 7% of girls). But their lack of self-discipline drives teachers crazy.
Perhaps because they can be so insufferable, teenage boys are often marked down. The OECD found that boys did much better in its anonymised tests than in teacher assessments. The gap with girls in reading was a third smaller, and the gap in maths—where boys were already ahead—opened up further. In another finding that suggests a lack of even-handedness among teachers, boys are more likely than girls to be forced to repeat a year, even when they are of equal ability.
What is behind this discrimination? One possibility is that teachers mark up students who are polite, eager and stay out of fights, all attributes that are more common among girls. In some countries, academic points can even be docked for bad behaviour. Another is that women, who make up eight out of ten primary-school teachers and nearly seven in ten lower-secondary teachers, favour their own sex, just as male bosses have been shown to favour male underlings. In a few places sexism is enshrined in law: Singapore still canes boys, while sparing girls the rod.
Some countries provide an environment in which boys can do better. In Latin America the gender gap in reading is relatively small, with boys in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru trailing girls less than they do elsewhere. Awkwardly, however, this nearly always comes with a wider gender gap in maths, in favour of boys. The reverse is true, too: Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which have got girls up to parity with boys in maths, struggle with uncomfortably wide gender gaps in reading. Since 2003, the last occasion when the OECD did a big study, boys in a few countries have caught up in reading and girls in several others have significantly narrowed the gap in maths. No country has managed both.
Onwards and upwards
The feminisation of higher education was so gradual that for a long time it passed unremarked. According to Stephan Vincent-Lancrin of the OECD, when in 2008 it published a report pointing out just how far it had gone, people “couldn’t believe it”.
Women who go to university are more likely than their male peers to graduate, and typically get better grades. But men and women tend to study different subjects, with many women choosing courses in education, health, arts and the humanities, whereas men take up computing, engineering and the exact sciences. In mathematics women are drawing level; in the life sciences, social sciences, business and law they have moved ahead.
Social change has done more to encourage women to enter higher education than any deliberate policy. The Pill and a decline in the average number of children, together with later marriage and childbearing, have made it easier for married women to join the workforce. As more women went out to work, discrimination became less sharp. Girls saw the point of study once they were expected to have careers. Rising divorce rates underlined the importance of being able to provide for yourself. These days girls nearly everywhere seem more ambitious than boys, both academically and in their careers. It is hard to believe that in 1900-50 about half of jobs in America were barred to married women.
So are women now on their way to becoming the dominant sex? Hanna Rosin’s book, “The End of Men and the Rise of Women”, published in 2012, argues that in America, at least, women are ahead not only educationally but increasingly also professionally and socially. Policymakers in many countries worry about the prospect of a growing underclass of ill-educated men. That should worry women, too: in the past they have typically married men in their own social group or above. If there are too few of those, many women will have to marry down or not at all.
Continua aqui
História da Contabilidade: Dois métodos de escrituração
Durante um longo período da nossa história era muito comum que aqueles que eram responsáveis pela contabilidade soubessem dois métodos de escrituração: partidas simples, também chamada de singela, e partidas dobradas. Na verdade alguns sabiam somente um método, geralmente partidas simples, ou os dois.
O Diário Mercantil de 1827 (1) anunciava o seguinte pedido:
Se houver alguma pessoa que tenha inteligencia da Escripturação Mercantil por Partidas singelas, e dobradas e de Arethimetica e queira dar lições a hum sugeito que deseja instruir-se nesta matéria; queira annunciar por este Diario para ser procurado. [Grafia da época]
Este anúncio é interessante pois também mostra que não existindo escolas onde se ensinavam a contabilidade, o aprendizado era realizado através de prático no assunto. Outra oferta, agora do Diário do Rio de Janeiro (2), confirma a existência destes dois métodos:
Hum individuo isento da Milicia pertende arrumar se de Caxeiro de escripta ou Guarda Livros, pois entende os dois methodos de escripturação de partidas dobradas, ou singela quem percisar ainda mesmo a partido annuciae pelo Diario para ser procurado.
Aqui gostaria de chamar a atenção para o fato de o profissional ter mais de uma denominação: caixeiro, guarda livros, amanuense, entre outras. Muito provavelmente existia, já nesta época, uma graduação entre eles (3).
Para fazer esta tarefa, existiam na época livros apropriados, conforme revela um anúncio do Diario do Rio de Janeiro (4):
Continua-se a vender na rua das Viollas caza n. 197 (...) livros em branco pautados para escripturação de Commercio
(1) Diário Mercantil, 21 de setembro de 1827, p. 3. Este diário era muito mais um pequeno classificados, geralmente com quatro páginas, do que um jornal de fato.
(2) Diário do Rio de Janeiro, 25 de abril de 1823, p. 3.
(3) Veja a seguinte postagem http://www.contabilidade-financeira.com/2013/07/historia-da-contabilidade-guarda-livros.html sobre o assunto.
(4) Diario do Rio de Janeiro, 13 de abril de 1824, p. 1.
O Diário Mercantil de 1827 (1) anunciava o seguinte pedido:
Se houver alguma pessoa que tenha inteligencia da Escripturação Mercantil por Partidas singelas, e dobradas e de Arethimetica e queira dar lições a hum sugeito que deseja instruir-se nesta matéria; queira annunciar por este Diario para ser procurado. [Grafia da época]
Este anúncio é interessante pois também mostra que não existindo escolas onde se ensinavam a contabilidade, o aprendizado era realizado através de prático no assunto. Outra oferta, agora do Diário do Rio de Janeiro (2), confirma a existência destes dois métodos:
Hum individuo isento da Milicia pertende arrumar se de Caxeiro de escripta ou Guarda Livros, pois entende os dois methodos de escripturação de partidas dobradas, ou singela quem percisar ainda mesmo a partido annuciae pelo Diario para ser procurado.
Aqui gostaria de chamar a atenção para o fato de o profissional ter mais de uma denominação: caixeiro, guarda livros, amanuense, entre outras. Muito provavelmente existia, já nesta época, uma graduação entre eles (3).
Para fazer esta tarefa, existiam na época livros apropriados, conforme revela um anúncio do Diario do Rio de Janeiro (4):
Continua-se a vender na rua das Viollas caza n. 197 (...) livros em branco pautados para escripturação de Commercio
(1) Diário Mercantil, 21 de setembro de 1827, p. 3. Este diário era muito mais um pequeno classificados, geralmente com quatro páginas, do que um jornal de fato.
(2) Diário do Rio de Janeiro, 25 de abril de 1823, p. 3.
(3) Veja a seguinte postagem http://www.contabilidade-financeira.com/2013/07/historia-da-contabilidade-guarda-livros.html sobre o assunto.
(4) Diario do Rio de Janeiro, 13 de abril de 1824, p. 1.
07 março 2015
Consultores de Investimento: ninguém sabe de nada
WHENEVER one writes about the failure of active managers to beat the index,
someone is bound to pop up online and argue that people don't pick fund
managers at random. Select the right fund managers and all will be
well. But how? Relying on past performance does not seem to work.
Logic would also suggest that it cannot be easy to identify the best
performers in advance; if it were, then why would anyone give money to
the underperformers?
Many pension funds and endowments hire investment consultants to help them choose fund managers (one estimate is that 82% of US pension plans use such services, and consultants advise on $25 trillion of assets). The consultants employ highly-educated workforces, have decades of experience and charge hefty fees. But an award (the 2015 Commonfund prize) has just been granted to an academic paper that concludes
So why do the clients still use the consultants? One explanation is the "hand-holding principle"; choosing funds is tricky and clients feel cautious about doing it on their own. They also want someone to blame if things go wrong. Investment consultants act as "money doctors".
But the most likely reason is that clients are unaware of the conclusions of the research and because of the lack of data mentioned earlier. As the authors write
Fonte: aqui
Many pension funds and endowments hire investment consultants to help them choose fund managers (one estimate is that 82% of US pension plans use such services, and consultants advise on $25 trillion of assets). The consultants employ highly-educated workforces, have decades of experience and charge hefty fees. But an award (the 2015 Commonfund prize) has just been granted to an academic paper that concludes
we find no evidence that these (the consultants') recommendations add value, suggesting that the search for winners, encouraged and guided by investment consultants, is fruitless[...]
So why do the clients still use the consultants? One explanation is the "hand-holding principle"; choosing funds is tricky and clients feel cautious about doing it on their own. They also want someone to blame if things go wrong. Investment consultants act as "money doctors".
But the most likely reason is that clients are unaware of the conclusions of the research and because of the lack of data mentioned earlier. As the authors write
It is unlikely that plan sponsors can reliably judge whether investment consultants add value or not. While fund managers testify to the rigour with which investment consultants scrutinise their performance, investment consultants themselves are shy of disclosing the sort of information which would allow plan sponsors, or any outsider, to measure their own perfomance.In short, while one can be willing to accept that there are smart fund managers who can outperform the market, the trick is identifying such managers in advance. This process seems as difficult as identifying hit films in advance; in that business, as William Goldman wrote once "Nobody knows anything".
Fonte: aqui
Fato da Semana: KPMG é condenada (Semana 10 de 2015)
Fato da Semana: Dois fatos relacionados com as grandes empresas de auditoria foram destaques na semana. A PwC renovou o contrato com a Petrobras (ou melhor, a Petrobras renovou com a PwC). As implicações para o parecer de final de ano acontecerão nos próximos meses. O segundo é a condenação da KPMG no processo do BVA, que foi escolhido por nós para fato da semana.
Qual a relevância disto? Tradicionalmente as empresas de auditoria tem conseguido escapar das garras da justiça quando cometem erros grosseiros nos balanços. Isto não é uma característica brasileira, mas de quase todos os países do mundo. São raros os casos de condenação por falha da empresa. As auditorias argumentam que o seu papel é observar se as normas foram seguidas adequadamente e não localizar fraudes.
Esta semana a justiça condenou a KPMG e seu sócio que fizeram a auditoria do banco BVA. É algo inédito no Brasil e abre uma discussão sobre o papel da auditoria, sua responsabilidade e escopo do trabalho.
Positivo ou Negativo – Para a KPMG é negativo, pois a condenação envolve uma multa em dinheiro. Ainda não se sabe se isto é bom ou não para o setor. As empresas argumentam que não são remuneradas para verificar fraudes e condenação por este motivo pode elevar o custo da hora de trabalho.
Desdobramentos – A KPMG deverá recorrer em outra instância. Não acredito que no longo prazo esta condenação perdure.
Qual a relevância disto? Tradicionalmente as empresas de auditoria tem conseguido escapar das garras da justiça quando cometem erros grosseiros nos balanços. Isto não é uma característica brasileira, mas de quase todos os países do mundo. São raros os casos de condenação por falha da empresa. As auditorias argumentam que o seu papel é observar se as normas foram seguidas adequadamente e não localizar fraudes.
Esta semana a justiça condenou a KPMG e seu sócio que fizeram a auditoria do banco BVA. É algo inédito no Brasil e abre uma discussão sobre o papel da auditoria, sua responsabilidade e escopo do trabalho.
Positivo ou Negativo – Para a KPMG é negativo, pois a condenação envolve uma multa em dinheiro. Ainda não se sabe se isto é bom ou não para o setor. As empresas argumentam que não são remuneradas para verificar fraudes e condenação por este motivo pode elevar o custo da hora de trabalho.
Desdobramentos – A KPMG deverá recorrer em outra instância. Não acredito que no longo prazo esta condenação perdure.
06 março 2015
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