Text 1

Excerpts from:

Fiat's ambitions

The Italian solution

Fiat’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne,
has gone merger mad

HIS company is among the smallest of the global volume carmakers. But right now Sergio Marchionne is without question the most talked-about car executive in the world. The chief executive of Fiat Group has been alone in seeing an extraordinary opportunity in the meltdown in Detroit. By seeking to take over the running of both Chrysler and Opel, the European arm of General Motors (GM), Mr Marchionne is attempting not only to transform Fiat into a car group almost of the scale of mighty Toyota and Volkswagen (VW), but also to change the face of a perennially troubled industry.

Last December Mr Marchionne said of his stricken industry: “What we are seeing is unprecedented. I have never seen the failure of so many systems at once.” Fiat was in a fight for survival. “We’re just going to slam the brakes on, use as many temporary lay-offs as needed, cut everything back to essentials.” He added an apocalyptic forecast. “By the time we finish with this in the next 24 months, as far as mass producers are concerned, we’re going to end up with one American house [Ford or GM, you presume]; one German of size [VW Group]; one French-Japanese, maybe with an extension in the US [the Renault-Nissan alliance]; one in Japan [Toyota], one in China [several possible candidates] and one potential European player [either Fiat or PSA Peugeot Citroën].”

The details of this vision may be wrong. Despite its present travails and imminent bankruptcy, few believe that GM will vanish and leave Ford as the sole American-owned champion. France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën, though unwieldy, is not about to disappear either. The strength of Hyundai- Kia in emerging markets and North America should ensure that the South Korean producer makes the cut. And in Japan, however great the cull of smaller outfits such as Mitsubishi and Suzuki, Honda and perhaps Mazda will still be around to challenge the dominance of Toyota in its home market. So will Renault’s partner, Nissan.

(…)

Having presided over a near-miraculous turnaround at Fiat since being appointed in 2004, Mr Marchionne saw in Chrysler an opportunity to apply the same lessons. At Fiat he saw a sluggish organisation that lacked leadership and had become accustomed to management by committee. But he also saw, buried within the company, a new generation of leaders.

“The single most important thing was to dismantle the organisational structure,” he recalls. “We tore it apart in 60 days, removing a large number of leaders who had been there a long time and who represented an operating style that lay outside any proper understanding of market dynamics.” In their place he promoted a group of younger executives, many with a background in consumer marketing, who understood and could provide what he wanted: accountability, openness, rapid communication and impatience with hierarchy and internal politics.

Some doubt that Fiat’s lean management has the resources to spread itself across Chrysler, let alone Opel too. Mr Marchionne understands the concern, but rejects it. He believes he already knows who the new leaders at Chrysler will be. He is confident that the same will apply to Opel, should that too fall into his lap.

(…)

(From The Economist print edition, May 7th 2009)

According to the text:

Item 1 - Sergio Marchionne and others see a good opportunity for Fiat in the calamitous situation of GM;

Julgue a seguinte afirmativa:

Item 2- O pagamento de maiores salários aos servidores públicos e o aumento das transferências de assistência social, como o Bolsa-Família, têm impacto semelhante sobre o consumo do governo, nas contas nacionais;

Com relação ao chamado “Milagre Brasileiro” (1968-1973), pode-se afirmar que a política econômica adotada no período teve a seguinte característica:

Item 3 - A taxa de crescimento da demanda por bens de consumo duráveis aumentou antes que a da demanda por bens de capital;

Avalie a afirmação abaixo, com relação à escolha sob incerteza:

Item 1 - Pela hipótese da independência, as escolhas do consumidor em um estado da natureza devem independer das escolhas em outro estado da natureza;

Text 1

Excerpts from:

Fiat's ambitions

The Italian solution

Fiat’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne,
has gone merger mad

HIS company is among the smallest of the global volume carmakers. But right now Sergio Marchionne is without question the most talked-about car executive in the world. The chief executive of Fiat Group has been alone in seeing an extraordinary opportunity in the meltdown in Detroit. By seeking to take over the running of both Chrysler and Opel, the European arm of General Motors (GM), Mr Marchionne is attempting not only to transform Fiat into a car group almost of the scale of mighty Toyota and Volkswagen (VW), but also to change the face of a perennially troubled industry.

Last December Mr Marchionne said of his stricken industry: “What we are seeing is unprecedented. I have never seen the failure of so many systems at once.” Fiat was in a fight for survival. “We’re just going to slam the brakes on, use as many temporary lay-offs as needed, cut everything back to essentials.” He added an apocalyptic forecast. “By the time we finish with this in the next 24 months, as far as mass producers are concerned, we’re going to end up with one American house [Ford or GM, you presume]; one German of size [VW Group]; one French-Japanese, maybe with an extension in the US [the Renault-Nissan alliance]; one in Japan [Toyota], one in China [several possible candidates] and one potential European player [either Fiat or PSA Peugeot Citroën].”

The details of this vision may be wrong. Despite its present travails and imminent bankruptcy, few believe that GM will vanish and leave Ford as the sole American-owned champion. France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën, though unwieldy, is not about to disappear either. The strength of Hyundai- Kia in emerging markets and North America should ensure that the South Korean producer makes the cut. And in Japan, however great the cull of smaller outfits such as Mitsubishi and Suzuki, Honda and perhaps Mazda will still be around to challenge the dominance of Toyota in its home market. So will Renault’s partner, Nissan.

(…)

Having presided over a near-miraculous turnaround at Fiat since being appointed in 2004, Mr Marchionne saw in Chrysler an opportunity to apply the same lessons. At Fiat he saw a sluggish organisation that lacked leadership and had become accustomed to management by committee. But he also saw, buried within the company, a new generation of leaders.

“The single most important thing was to dismantle the organisational structure,” he recalls. “We tore it apart in 60 days, removing a large number of leaders who had been there a long time and who represented an operating style that lay outside any proper understanding of market dynamics.” In their place he promoted a group of younger executives, many with a background in consumer marketing, who understood and could provide what he wanted: accountability, openness, rapid communication and impatience with hierarchy and internal politics.

Some doubt that Fiat’s lean management has the resources to spread itself across Chrysler, let alone Opel too. Mr Marchionne understands the concern, but rejects it. He believes he already knows who the new leaders at Chrysler will be. He is confident that the same will apply to Opel, should that too fall into his lap.

(…)

(From The Economist print edition, May 7th 2009)

According to the text:

Item 2 - Hyundai – Kia is particularly strong in the European market;

Considere o modelo de crescimento de Solow, com a seguinte função de produção: !$ Y = K^{1/3} (AL)^{2/3} !$, em que Y, K, L e A são, respectivamente, o produto, o estoque de capital, o número de trabalhadores e a tecnologia. Os mercados de fatores são perfeitamente competitivos e a economia encontra-se em uma trajetória de crescimento equilibrado, na qual o produto (Y) cresce 4% ao ano e a relação capital- produto (K/Y) é igual a 4. A taxa de depreciação do capital é de 3% ao ano e o número de trabalhadores cresce 2% ao ano. Com base nessas informações, julgue as afirmativas abaixo:

[Obs.: Se X=W*Z, use a aproximação: Tx.crescimento de X = Tx.crescimento de W + Tx.crescimento de Z.]

Item 0 - A taxa de poupança da economia é de 28%;

Sejam !$ f: IR^2 \rightarrow IR\ !$ definida por !$ f(x,y) = x + y, g: IR^2 \rightarrow IR\ !$ definida por e definida por !$ g(x,y) = x^2 + y^2 !$ e !$ h: IR^2 \rightarrow IR\ !$ definida por !$ h(x,y) = x^3 y^3- x - y+ 1 !$ Julgue a afirmativa:

Item 3 - A matriz hessiana de h é negativa definida em (-1,1);

Considere os conjuntos

!$ A = \left \{ x \in IR/ | x -3| + | x-2 | = 1 \right \};\,\,B= \left \{ \in IR/3+ 2x - x^2 > 0 \right \} !$

!$ A = \left \{ x \in IR/1 < { \large1 \over x} < 2 \right \} !$ e

!$ C = \left \{ x \in IR / 4 \le / x^2 \le 9 \right \} !$. Julgue a afirmativa:

Item 4 - !$ \left \{ ( { \large 1 \over n}, { \large n + 1 \over n + 2}) / n \in IN^* \right \} \subset B x C !$

Considere o modelo de regressão linear múltipla com regressores estocásticos

!$ y_1 = \beta_1 x_{1t} + \beta_2 x_{2t} + \varepsilon_t !$,

no qual !$ \varepsilon_t !$não é autocorrelacionado e tem média e variância condicionais a x_1t e x_2t iguais a zero e σ², respectivamente. Por simplicidade, suponha que as variáveis são expressas como desvios com relação às respectivas médias.

É correto afirmar que:

Item 2- Se x_2t = y_t-1 e relaxarmos a hipótese de que os erros !$ \varepsilon_t^{ \prime}S !$ não são autocorrelacionados, o estimador de mínimos quadrados ordinários de β₂ será consistente, porém não será eficiente;

Em importante estudo sobre a economia brasileira na década de 1960, Simonsen defende que a política antiinflacionária adotada pelo PAEG apresentou a seguinte característica:

Item 3 - implantou o que veio a ser chamado de “inflação corretiva”, isto é, uma série de altas de preços com o objetivo de corrigir distorções acumuladas no passado e que atenuaria a dependência de alguns setores produtivos em relação aos subsídios governamentais;